The award is regarded as inferior to the DCM, although some recipients who won the MM could easily have qualified for a DCM or VC for their outstanding acts of bravery in the field had the appropriate evidence and verification been available. In June 1916 the award was extended to females in response to the acts of two civillian women during the Dublin Easter Uprising of that year. In 1993, the MM was discontinued and the MC has been made available to all ranks as well as officers. The medal was intended for NCOs and men of the RAF who displayed courage or devotion to duty whilst flying on operations against the enemy. The obverse shows the Sovereign's head, whilst the reverse depicts the Greek goddess Athena seated on an aeroplane with a hawk rising from her hand.
Earlier medals are undated.
The suspender is ornate, consisting of a pair of wings rising up to a straight bar. The ribbon was originally of purple and white horizontal stripes, but since 1919 thirteen diagonal stripes of those colours have been used. The medal was replaced in 1993 by the DFC, which is now available to both officers and other ranks. Again a silver oval medal with the same winged suspender as the DFM, the obverse shows the Sovereign's head, and the reverse has the Greek god Hermes standing on the back of a hawk with a laurel wreath in his right hand. Again, George VI medals onwards are dated '1918', this time at 9 o'clock on the reverse.