Hmmm. Closing down the mystery.
It’s certainly an Armstrong Whitworth Siskin; what marque or model is a question.
There’s a profile view of the same aircraft on the same occasion marked as a ‘Mk.V’ here . However, the Mk.V was apparently intended as the Romanian export version, and the Mk.IV an air-racing civil variant of the Mk.V (confused? I am) but the Romanian order was cancelled after a pilot was killed in the first aircraft. The markings are interesting, being two-colour under-wing roundel(s) on the starboard lower wing, no fuselage roundel, and rudder striping, but not a ‘proper’ RAF serial on the rudder. The non-English summary on the rudder means that this might be the aircraft painted as the Romanian machine… Flags of the world gives
this page on the history of Romanian markings. Does anyone know what tail markings Romanian aircraft used inter-war?
There’s a sample of what is classed as Romanian inter-war markings here .
I don’t think it’s a Siskin in Australia – I suspect the photo got muddled into a collection in error.
Much more interesting!
In Oliver Tapper’s Putnam AW history there is a photo (p128) of the Roumanian Siskin V – almost identical in aspect to that found by JDK ( I think its No 2 by looking under the tailplane). The Putnam picture does ,additionally, reveal the underwing roundel, which I notice is similar in appearance to that in the head-on view. In the absence of any other information, it does appear that the mystery aircraft is,in fact, probably a Roumanian Siskin V, of which about a dozen were completed end 1924 to beginning 1925 before later cancellation in early 1925 after about 34 total had been built.
Roumanian colours on this particular aircraft were probably , fin flash:from front- Blue, Yellow, Red: Roundel , from Centre- Blue , Yellow, Red (From a contemporary colour plate in the pre WWII “War in the Air” volumes -Ed.Sir John Hammerton,as well as many subsequent artists interpretations)
I think that the yellow and red sectors of the roundel are probably almost undifferentiated in grey level in the images posted,thus causing the confusion. However, in the “Putnam” shot, on the fin flash at least, one can comfortably discern all three bands, including the additional pale toned (blue?) band forward of the two that are visible in the “JDK” shot.
Turning back a page to p127 in Tapper’s book there is a shot of the Siskin V G-EBLQ in front of what looks like the same hangars as in the head-on shot. The location of these is “Whitley Abbey Aerodrome”.
So in summary:
The mystery aircraft is almost certainly an Armstrong Whitworth Siskin V, possibly No 4, of the cancelled Roumanian order and was photographed at the Manufacturer’s Whitley Abbey aerodrome (just south of Coventry U.K. ) in around the winter of 1924/1925.
Enclosed is the shot (author of image unknown) from page 128 of Tapper’s Putnam AW Book. N.B. all 3 bands of the fin flash are clearly visible in the original book illustration.
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