Fairey FD2 WG774 in later colours

OK.. here’s an idea.. If we colour correct those to the right shade, we ‘should’ get something pretty damn close to the right shade of purple…

Zeb

I ran both through full Photoshop as a CMYK…. the full aircraft pic seems to be too light… and the first one too ‘purple’. Both pics are too low rez to to get a decent Pantone sample of.

Peter Twiss told us at a talk he gave at White Waltham that one of Fairey’s Director’s wives had chosen that colour
I can remember trying to paint my Frog FD2 in a similar colour, but making an awful mess of it!

OK.. here’s an idea.. we know what two of the colours on the photographs should be… the red and blue from the roundels…

If we colour correct those to the right shade, we ‘should’ get something pretty damn close to the right shade of purple…

Zeb

NMF and a very dark blue grey

Someone really saw this and thought, ‘Wow, the most beautiful aircraft ever designed…now have I got the perfect colour for that!’.

Prefer the blue I think.

What other colours did it/they wear?

MH

Purple, puce – or even a shade of pink?

re;

what an a/c! My absolute dream a/c after the Mosquito.

Puce, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puce, the colour shown in the top right of the Wiki page certainly isn’t far off some of the colour photos of the FD.2 that I have seen – however as has already been said these images suffer with vagaries of various older printings systems.

The opening image in the thread looks too dark too me (exposure wise, not shade wise). Another pic of WG774 in ‘puce’ here, http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.aviastar.org/pictures/england/fairey_fd-2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/fairey_fd-2.php&h=227&w=452&sz=35&tbnid=zpkYzzUbFJD23M:&tbnh=64&tbnw=127&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfairey%2Bfd.2%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=fairey+fd.2&hl=en&usg=__IBCDTocLBn-oMmRwJC77mrni9eU=&sa=X&ei=Rnc6TuzgCYOxhAeOve2oAg&ved=0CBYQ9QEwAw

According to Flight at the time the colour was puce, not mauve.As the report also said, puce means “flea-coloured”!!
I remember asking for some puce paint in my local model shop and getting a blank stare for my efforts.
Jim

Can anyone provide a vaguely accurate indication of the actual colour as I have seen a few photos with varying shades but all will have been based on photos that have discoloured with age and I don’t fully trust them.

If you look at the nose close-up photo in post #1 at the start of this thread, I would say that’s a pretty accurate representation of the purple colour that hasn’t faded. We know the RAF roundel colours which show to be correct, so this is a good indication. The flash and lettering on the nose is ‘cream’.

Can anyone provide a vaguely accurate indication of the actual colour as I have seen a few photos with varying shades but all will have been based on photos that have discoloured with age and I don’t fully trust them.

I have this pic of the FD2 sent to me by Fairey c mid 50s, the photo has on the back MAYfair 8791 Publicity Photo

Are there any others on here that can post photos of the mauve FD2? A google search doesn’t seem to turn up much of any quality. I can remember as a child chancing upon this lovely purple “paper-airplane” design in some old book and being absolutely taken with it. It looked absolutely futuristic and “right” and yet was also so whimsical, especially to a kid raised on black and white episodes of the Thunderbirds.

I do believe it intrigued me enough to spark my early love of all things aeronautical, and I dare say that little purple airplane may have been responsible for a life misspent in aviation. I’d love to see more of her.

Albert,
thank you for sharing that rare photo!
Do you mean you actually shot it or was it purchased ‘second-hand’?
Bye
Fabio

No, I didn’t take it myself (I would have been only 8!). It was given to me by a local friend who gave up collecting slides.

Albert,
thank you for sharing that rare photo!
Do you mean you actually shot it or was it purchased ‘second-hand’?
Bye
Fabio

By sheer coincidence I have just read a review in Aeroplane Monthly of “Faster than the sun” by Peter Twiss, wherein Philip Jarret, the reviewer, says, “I Saw the F.D.2 at my first SBAC Display at Farnborough in 1958, by which time it was wearing a singular overall mauve colour scheme.”
I claim my five pound prize, Albert Ross, you must be Philip Jarrett!

Purple FD.2

Yes indeed it is at Farnborough in September 1958 in this scheme, but colour photos are pretty rare. Here is a colour slide in my collection, which I assure you is the same scheme but looks paler, due to the age of the original slide.

It was later converted into the BAC 221 with new wings to test the Concorde designs. This is her now at Yeovilton Museum in blue.
Select from the index.
http://www.fleetairarm.com/index2.htm
mmitch.