I’m putting together another book on all things DH and I’ve recently discovered something apparently minor but very puzzling that’s got me into an ongoing full, frank and meaningful discussion with another author who has written a lot of titles for Air Britain.
He and I have always thought that RAF serials were always a combination of either one letter and four numbers or two letters and three numbers – as far as were are both concerned, that was the Air Ministry ‘standard’.
Then I used a picture of a Tigger – shown here – that shows the serial as EM-836. Note the apparent hyphen. His reaction was ‘oh this is just an error by the sign writer’ – BUT… the more I looked, the more I discovered DH aircraft marked in a similar manner. The DH.76 had it’s serial like that on the fuse, but in the standard manner on the fin. Same with pictures of assorted DH.60s. I went back right to the start of the company, and can find examples of the same sort of thing. I’ve also heard of some early DH jets being marked with a forward slash as a separator![ATTACH=CONFIG]245513
At the moment, my guess is that it was happening for at least twenty years! Now that is not a sign writer error, nor is it an error that the ‘powers that be’ in the Air Ministry would let go uncorrected for that long!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]245513[/ATTACH]
I’m going to have to put some kind of explanation in the finished book, but does anyone have any ideas or suggestions as to why this was happening?
By: Thunderbird167 - 26th April 2016 at 11:51
This could be a misinterpretation of official paperwork
I was once told of an incident when the 607 squadron Demons were being camoflagued in 1936.
The official instruction referred to the underwing serials being DTD and four numbers. The DTD being the specification. The aircraft finisher on the squadron proceeded to mark out the letters DTD on the first aircraft much to the consternation of the Engineering Officer.
I could see both (-) and (/) being interpreted as a dash. I wonder if there is anything in the finishing drawings or specification that refers to a dash
By: jeepman - 26th April 2016 at 00:57
in terms of non-standard serial presentation, don’t forget that on some of the early Vampire F1 airframes, De H added an oblique stroke between the two letters and the three numbers of the serial number – on the booms at least
By: Malcolm McKay - 25th April 2016 at 23:20
Over the last century and more it appears that serial numbers and their fonts have all sorts of differences both subtle and readily apparent. The last edition of Bruce Robertson’s British Military Aircraft Serials 1878 – … – that I have (mine is 1987) has all these illustrated. Other historians have noted this also – Paul Lucas’s excellent The Battle for Britain – RAF May to December 1940 also goes into great detail on the styles and fonts used. It is obvious that each aircraft manufacturer, sub-contractor, maintenance unit and servicing facility had, over the years, painted these in styles, which, while vaguely complying with what was officially required, were tempered by whoever the chap in charge of the paint shop saw as meeting that requirement. Add to those local producers aircraft delivered under lend lease etc. then it is not surprising that there are so many variations. The other area of variation are the squadron codes letter codes adopted in the late thirties. About the only thing that is common to these over the period to the end of the war is the colour – again we see changes in font styles and even sizes and placement. I suspect that anyone looking for uniformity in this subject is going to be disappointed.
By: l.garey - 25th April 2016 at 14:44
Hello Graham: while researching the crash of a DH10 in 1921 I found this photo of F.8423 (with a fullstop).
https://sites.google.com/site/aeemartleshamheath/home/crash-of-a-dh10-from-martlesham-heath-1921
There is more on DH10 markings in Windsock DataFile 38, by JM Bruce.
http://forum.keypublishing.com/asset.php?fid=241022&uid=9552&d=1455901742
By: scotavia - 25th April 2016 at 12:03
Perhaps the influence of civil aircraft markings and an indication of where the finishers had recently worked.
By: Sabrejet - 25th April 2016 at 11:47
I’ve noticed this on a lot of Tiger Moths: I assumed it was a DH thing and not ‘approved’ in any way.
Going back to WW1, it seemed that anything went, and that aircraft markings were very much at the whim of the sign-writers: I have seen dots, dashes and even the odd apostrophe between the first letter and subsequent digits of an aircraft serial number.
By: Sopwith - 25th April 2016 at 10:38
What, pray, is a “hypen”?
It’s a hyphen without the “h”.;)
By: jack windsor - 25th April 2016 at 10:04
In Fighter Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft a brief look brings a photo of a 3Sq. Vampire VF/279. Also 17Sq flt. of Bulldogs in 1929 ie K-1085, K1081, J-9587. 19Sq. Bulldog K-2159.
Aircraft Camouflage and Markings 1907-1954 shows a Bristol built B.E.2E A-2885, A-2725 a A.W. F.K.8, a line up of A.W. Siskin IIIAs j-8950, j-8664. Westland Wapiti IIA j-9388 of 31Sq. and K1291 of 31Sq had the hyphen on the fin as well as the fuselage, also the letter on the fin in line which is stated as peculiar to India Command 1934-39. a Gloster Gamecock J-7902. A photo of Tiger Moth R-5130 also is shown with the serial shown hyphened under both wings, with a note “a hyphen between the letter and number was not general but peculiar to De Havilland aircraft”. Although as shown above Bristol, AW, Westland, Gloster besides DH used this hyphen…
as always (now anyways) please excuse grammar mistakes…
regards,
jack…
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April 25, 2016 at 8:24 am