By: Graham Boak - 9th February 2013 at 19:29
There’s room for argument over that Hurricane scheme: it was also seen on Fulmars which had no such airfield attack requirement. It makes more sense as a general means of reducing the aircraft’s visibility head-on, and would be equally useful air-to-air as air-to-ground.
Getting back to the original point: late in 1940 many of the tail bands and spinners were seen in Sky Blue rather than Sky, and the contrast with the undersides can be seen even in some b&w photos. At least one MU didn’t understand what was meant by Sky even into the autumn, but the use of Sky Blue seems to have ended by 1941 so presumably someone spelt it out to them!
By: antoni - 8th February 2013 at 21:54
The Japanese also painted the leading edges of the wings of their aircraft yellow; it is said as an identification aid when making passes over their own infantry. Allied aircraft in the Pacific Theatre used white.
In North Africa some Hurricanes were painted with a mottle pattern over the nose and leading edges of the wings to imitate Italian camouflage in the hope that they would be mistaken for friendly aircraft when attacking airfields etc.,
By: Drem - 8th February 2013 at 20:39
Thats different:D
By: Graham Boak - 7th February 2013 at 21:56
The yellow leading edges were to aid recognition in head-on attacks.
There was no agreement about using the same camouflage. It rarely happened because different people in different countries had different opinions about different requirements.
By: paul178 - 7th February 2013 at 21:38
Was the yellow leading edge an aid to recognition or for any other reason?Seems a bit of a daft question but was there some gentlemans or Geneva convention agreement that belligerents did not copy one anothers camoflague schemes?
By: Drem - 7th February 2013 at 21:19
Thats great, thank you very much.
Drem.
By: antoni - 7th February 2013 at 17:49
Signal X.798, sent 27th November 1940, ordered spinner to be painted Sky, an 18 inch Sky band to be painted around the rear fuselage, and port wing to be painted black. Signal A279, 7th April 1941, ordered return to all Sky under surfaces with type A roundels effective 15th April, subsequently delayed until 22nd April.
Yellow leading edges introduced a part of the Day Fighter Scheme. Air Ministry instructions were to change aircraft as and when convenient from 15th August 1941.
By: Moggy C - 7th February 2013 at 17:03
December 1940 saw the introduction of the ‘Sky’ bands.
September 1941 for the 6″ yellow band on the leaing edge.
Moggy
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February 7, 2013 at 4:55 pm