Colour photos of mid 1950’s Royal Navy Aircraft carrier decks seem to be few and far between, but I have a couple of questions regarding the David Brown aircraft tow tractors that were used on them as shown;
1; Was red the standard colour used on them during the 1950’s or were other colours used as well?
2; In the other photo (credit Martin Grant) taken during Suez in 1956, the tractors are painted an unusual shade of yellow. Was this to match the identification invasion stripes on the aircraft in case of carriers being wrongly identified, or some other reason?
By: Arabella-Cox - 14th April 2021 at 11:26
“RAF Ground Equipment Yellow also known as Golden Yellow, was used on all areas of ground equipment up until the mid 1970s. This included technical equipment and all types of vehicles including airfield use. Amongst these were aircraft refuellers, glider launching winches and cable retrieval vehicles. It was also known as Golden Yellow”
By: DaveF68 - 14th April 2021 at 10:47
Post mid-60s, the colour for the tractors was Golden Yellow (BS381C 356). Prior to that there was an orangey-yellow in the MoS range as colour No 2, but this appears to have been superceded mid 50s by no 405, which was less orange.
There were stories that the yellow had to be diluted toon aircraft to make sure enough wnet around, and a friend’s father remembers using dark blue for the stripes as they ran out of black.
By: Wyvernfan - 25th March 2021 at 22:38
Nothing – I’ve no idea what it is but to me it seems a bit big for that.
Thanks for that MM, it’s been a while since I’ve watched that particular film but fascinating as always.
Unfortunately theres not much ground equipment movement going on – and that’s pretty much the case with a lot of carrier deck films I’ve watched from the fifties!
By: Mothminor - 25th March 2021 at 19:58
Hi Wyvernfan,
Have you seen “Launch & Recover” on Youtube? It was made in 1960 so a little later than you are asking about but it features some great video of carrier deck vehicles…..Oh, and there are some nice Scimitars and Sea Vixens to feast your eyes on too
By: Nothing - 23rd March 2021 at 17:32
Stabbing in the dark but might the red thing not a tractor be something like an engine starter or generator?
I know its not a Palouste, but…?
By: Wyvernfan - 23rd March 2021 at 16:18
You could be right as the tow tractor yellow is not a colour I’m familiar with. Having said that there doesn’t seem to be a standard yellow colour on Suez stripes painted on aircraft either, unless it is the photos that show them to be different shades of yellow!
By: Arabella-Cox - 23rd March 2021 at 13:48
Is it possible that the invasion stripes have been painted over the grey in a hurry and the base colour is bleeding through? The bright ground equipment yellow is much as I remember it.
By: dhfan - 22nd March 2021 at 23:20
I’ve no idea where Lee Howard lurks these days but I imagine he would have an idea, or at least know where to look.
By: Wyvernfan - 22nd March 2021 at 13:39
Oracal – to me the yellow appears to be a much darker shade of yellow – using the yellow stripes of the aircraft as a guide.
Adrian – as you say the red reminds me of the standard red as seen on David Brown Cropmaster agricultural tractors. As for the odd looking one I’ve no idea, possibly a tugmaster variant?!
By: adrian_gray - 18th March 2021 at 22:52
I can’t tell you whether it was a standard RN colour, but the red tractors in the photo look very much like David Brown’s standard “Hunting Pink”. What is the third vehicle back? It doesn’t seem to have a driving position.
By: Arabella-Cox - 18th March 2021 at 20:08
The shiny bright yellow reminds me of ‘ground equipment yellow’ used in the RAF late 60s early 70s.
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March 18, 2021 at 4:58 pm