do you mean between the academies? Anyhow, the differences are fairly large in my opinion. In the base form, you can look at it this way: air force = planes, navy = ships. Then you can go into more detail from them seeing where each overlap, etc.
If anything, the Navy overlaps the Air Force - not the other way around.
In my opinion, there are many more viable career paths available in the Navy.
Operationally speaking, there are admirals who were Surface Warfare Officers, Submariners, and Aviators. Although very different, they are all well-respected and viable careers. Plus, you can enter the Marine Corps from the Naval Academy! The Naval Academy offers you everything you would ever want if you went to West Point and everything you'd ever want if you went to the Air Force Academy.
In the Air Force, operationally speaking, you're either a pilot or you're not. I know I'm probably over-simplifying it a bit. But there is more than a grain of truth to this.
Amongst Air Force officers, if you're not a pilot - you're a second class citizen to some extent. Sure, nobody is going to
tell you that outright - it mostly goes unsaid. A vast majority of the high-ranking officers are pilots.
There is a bad side to the Navy, however. The Navy is the "away team" of the military. It is not nearly has conducive to a "normal" family life as the Air Force is. The Air Force is a much cushier existence. There's no doubt about that.
I wouldn't necessarily say one is
better than the other, however. It's a matter of personal temperament.
Don't forget, not everybody who flies (in either the Navy or Air Force) is a necessarily a hotshot fighter pilot. There are helicopters and tankers. Also, the Air Force uses
pilots to fly Predators (unmanned aircraft). Imagine going through flight school, earning your wings, and then they lock you in a closet and you are basically playing XBox, remotely? That would
never happen in the Navy.
Let's face it - there is nothing
cooler than landing an F/A-18 Hornet on an aircraft carrier.
From an aviation perspective, the Air Force is
bigger - but the Navy is
cooler.
Everybody has heard of the
Blue Angels ... only
some people have ever heard of the
Thunderbirds.