For most of its existence, the South African Air Force has made use of unit badges and, more recently, arms. The practice seems to have arisen during World War II, when the SAAF expanded to several times its pre-war size, with dozens of squadrons, schools, and supporting units.

The SAAF's wartime association with the Royal Air Force clearly had an influence on the development of SAAF emblems. During World War II most, if not all, the flying squadrons adopted devices, which were painted on aircraft and also displayed in other media. They weren't armorial and many depicted birds (especially eagles), springboks, and bombs.

Some were positively cartoonish: the badge of 40 (Observer) Squadron bore the flash of the 8th Army with a snarling cartoon cat peering through a magnifying glass, and the motto exercitui oculis ("Eyes of the army")!

However, the air schools which the SAAF ran jointly with the RAF, under the Joint Air Training Scheme, displayed their badges more formally, in frames. This had been RAF practice since 1935, though the frames used by the SAAF weren't exactly the same as the RAF style.

The design which seems to have been the most popular was a circular frame, displaying the unit's name in both languages, ensigned with a crowned flying eagle. Below the frame was a spray of laurel leaves and a motto scroll.

Another design, used by a number of schools, had an arc inscribed south africa between the crown and the eagle, and laurel leaves right around the frame.

These badges weren't particularly armorial either. Some alluded to the SA/UK collaboration by including charges such as a springbok and a lion, or an ox-wagon and a rose. Some alluded to the home base, e.g. a diamond for 21 Air School at Kimberley, and an ostrich for 45 AS at Oudtshoorn. The badge of 4 AS, which flew Moth aircraft, depicted a moth.

After the war, the SAAF adopted the standard RAF-style frame (a crowned blue circular frame, inscribed with the unit's name, and wreathed in golden laurel leaves, with a motto scroll below), but gave it a South African flavour by replacing the laurel wreath with protea flowers and leaves, as in the badge of 3 Motorboat Squadron, which depicted a rescue boat above a pair of wings.

This design was used by most, if not all, units until the late 1950s, when the crown and other British emblems were discontinued in preparation for the republic.

During the 1960s and the '70s, formations, schools, and units displayed their devices unframed. In the 1970s, the SAAF decided to introduce proper unit arms, similar to those adopted by the Army. A good number of the existing devices were adapted into armorial charges, but some units adopted entirely new arms.