RE: RAF Squadron Markings.

Hi Doughnut, Yes they did carry a painting of the character, but unfortunately I’ve no close ups, I was in another part of the world when 8 Sqn was at Lossie. As for serial ties ups, here they are:
WL741 “PC Knapweed”, WL745 “Sage”, WL747 “Florence”, WL754 “Paul”, WL756 “Mr Rusty”, WL757 “Brian”, WL790 “Mr McHenry”, WL793 “Ermintrude”, WL795 “Rosalie” WR960 “Dougal” WR963 “Ermintrude” WR965 “Dill”. (Note that 2 Aircraft were called “Ermintrude, but were not on the Sqn at the same time.)

KeithMac

RE: RAF Squadron Markings.

Yes Kev, the origins you came up with pretty well match my knowledge of those particular Sqn badges. I know 8 Sqns Shacks carried “Magic Roundabout” characters for a while, and for a very brief period, 12 Sqn adopted Baxter’s soup names! but that was short lived. 16 Sqn’s Jaguars carried a strip of Lumsden tartan on their fin mounted RWR aerial while they were Lossie based. They lost an aircraft near the village of Lumsden in Aberdeenshire, and as a tribute to the locals who looked after the pilot, and the boys who went out to guard and recover the wreckage, they painted the tartan on the fin. It pays to keep the locals happy!!

KeithMac

RE: RAF Squadron Markings.

Ok Here’s a few more:

7 Sqn – The constellation Great Bear – 7 Stars.

8 Sqn – Ceremonial Arab Dagger – To show their association with Aden and the middle east where they were based in the 20’s and 30’s.

33 Sqn – A Hinds head – They were the first sqn to operate the Hawker Hind.

43 Sqn – A Fighting ##### – To commemorate being equipped with the Gloster Gamecock.

208 Sqn – The Sphinx – To commemorate their time in North Africa, particularly while based at Heliopolis.

230 Sqn – Tiger and Palm – For their time in Malaya.
Attachments:

RE: RAF Squadron Markings.

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 01-12-02 AT 05:02 PM (GMT)]The ones that did’nt arrive first time!!
KeithMac
Attachments:

RE: British camouflage patterns

Nothing much changes over the years. In 1990 I was at Laarbruch, part of my “empire” was the aircraft paint section. When Saddam decided to invade Kuwait we got instructions to paint a number of aircraft into “Desert Pink”. This colour of paint did not exist in any standard form. It was mixed on site to a “recipe” which was a few litres of this, a few litres of that, 3 paper coffee cups of this etc! It’s little wonder that there were variations between the different units and even between aircraft painted at the same unit. When they left for the Gulf they were completely devoid of Sqn markings and even the national markings were toned down. After a few weeks in theatre they gained “nose art” and were patched up with locally mixed paint which often did not match the original Germany and UK mixed shade! Such is the reality of aircraft paint scheme’s.

KeithMac.

RE: Question about RAF/RN F-4s during engine run-up

Di Dazza. All jet engines have parts which are pressurised internally by air drawn from the compressors, this helps to keep the oil in the bearings by pressurizing things called Labyrinth seals, it supplies cooling air to the Turbines and does a multitude of jobs. Most of it finds it’s way back into the main gas flow, some of it however has to be vented overboard. The smoke you see vented from the Phantom is some of this hot gas. It’s not directly related with the reheat, it’s just that when you go into reheat on the Phantom you’re already at the Max dry throttle setting (On the Phantom it’s called Max Mil or Max Military setting, a term inherited from the Americans) and there is a lot of this surplus hot gas to get rid of. There is also a lot of cooling air which is forced down between the outside of the Jetpipe and the fuselage inner skin to keep the fuselage from overheating, this also vents overboard.

Hope that answers your question.

KeithMac.