Visual Guide: The Uniforms of the Wing Commander Movie

Officer Uniforms

Duty Sweaters: Officers seen on the Tiger Claw, Concordia and at Pegasus wear a mix of two different types of knit sweaters, one without a collar and one with a turtleneck. The latter seems to be based on the Royal Navy's World War II-era submariner's sweater. There does not seem to be any particular division save that aviators are only ever seen wearing the collarless sweater. Both sweaters feature the officer's assignment patch on the right arm, rank indicators on the shoulder and nametag on the left breast.

Both types of sweaters may be worn with a brimless cap, seemingly the film's equivalent of a sailor's "Dixie cup" hat. The caps are personalized with an officer's name. The caps worn on Pegasus feature the Pegasus assignment patch while the caps worn on the Concordia and Tiger Claw have generic Confederation logos.

Both types of sweaters are worn with darker blue pants.

Peacoat: The peacoat may be worn over either type of sweater: Admirals Tolwyn and Wilson both wear it with the turtleneck while Captain Sansky, Commander Gerald and background characters wear it with the collarless sweater. When Blair and Maniac arrive on the Tiger Claw they are wearing (and in the case of Maniac later carrying) their unbuttoned peacoats. The flag officer version (worn by Tolwyn) seems to have a longer turtleneck and possibly more ornate buttons. The peacoat features a nametag on the left breast and the assignment patch on the right arm.

The peacoat may be worn with a cover; this is only seen on background characters. It features the same insignia as the more common brimless caps.

Role-Specific

Flight Suits: Tiger Claw aviators wear red flight suits which consist of a red top worn over a red jumpsuit and gray thermal underwear. The outer jackets feature the assignment patch on the right arm and a small medical kit in a clear pocket on the left. The pilot helmets are personalized.

Boarding: The Tiger Claw's Marine detachment wear C-524 Space Armor, C-532 Life Support Packs and C-512 Combat Helmets plus optional C-545 External Web Harnesses for storing additional equipment. The outfit features red armor pieces attached to a black undersuit. The only identifying information is a silver nameplate on the left breast.

The Confederation Handbook has extensive lore regarding the space armor and associated equipment:

Military Police: security is seen aboard the TIger Claw, Pegasus and Concordia wearing the turtleneck sweater and brimless cap plus black body armor, black pants and an optional balaclava (seen everywhere but the Tiger Claw's bridge). The body armor has a rank insignia on the right breast and the turtleneck sweaters worn by MPs have an additional Confederation patch on the left arm.

Weapons Loaders: enlisted crewmen seen working in the Tiger's Claw's torpedo batteries wear a yellow jersey under a set of gray coveralls with yellow highlights and optional yellow hearing protectors. The coveralls have the enlisted rank on the shoulders and the assignment patch on the right arm.

Flight Deck

Watch the background in any of the flight deck scenes on the Tiger Claw: there's a great variety of extras wearing colorful clothing constantly moving around in the background. The movie's flight deck operations are based on modern aircraft carriers and their color coded jerseys that allow crewmen to be quickly identified by their roles on a noisy flight deck (though the colors are changed somewhat). As in real life, there are seven colors: The first five wear colored jerseys with tan vests that have matching reflectors/highlights, dark pants and a matching colored deck helmet. The jerseys feature the assignment patch on their right arms and the vests feature rank insignia on the shoulders. The medic vest has a red cross on the back instead of a reflector pattern.

Yellow Jersey - Spacecraft directors and catapult officers, aka the "shooter" who gives the final approval to launch a spacecraft.

Green Jersey - Plane Captains (Brown IRL)

Purple Jersey - Catapult personnel, space wing maintenance crews and ground support equipment operators. (Purple IRL)

Red Jersey - Plane handlers, elevator operators, tractor drivers. (Blue IRL)

White Jersey - Medics

Ordinancemen: gray coveralls with green reflectors and the same gray hooded thermal undershirt as aviators. (Red IRL)

Fuelers: orange coveralls with dark reflectors over a white undershirt with a dark tool belt (Purple IRL)

When Angel is working on her plane early in the film she wears the same coveralls as a fueler (without the belt) over her duty uniform. The script identifies it as a "disposable plasticine coveralls" and the Confederation Handbook says that it's a flight deck rule that anyone working on their fighters must wear one:

Additionally, the Deck Boss and Flight Boss (when he is on the flight deck) wear the vest with green highlights over the blue duty sweater.