The changes occured due to the change in composition of the paints used by the RAF. They went to a polyurethane based paint in 1966 – at that time, it was not possible to make an ‘aluminium’ paint in polyurethane, so Light Aircraft Grey was a dopted (based on a colour in BS2660) as being the nearest equivalent shade (in terms of light reflectivity etc) as Aluminium/High Speed Silver.*
I’ve not yet been able to tie down as to whether this change of paint types was also responsible for the change in dayglo hue, but it is a possible hypotheisis. Post 1966, the official colour was Fluorescent Red Orange (Or Red Orange fluorescent in some publications) – it would be interesting to see an AP from beofre then to see how the colour is referred to.
The new Red/White/Grey scheme seems to have first appeared on Gnats in 1969, although it appeared much earlier on other types – the Dominie, for example, entered service with it in 1966 (The first couple were delivered in HSS/Dayglo). One point to note on that scheme on Gnats is that the initial scheme differed as the whole wing was Light Aircraft Grey.
*As an aside, it’s interesting to note that FAA Gannnet T5s seemed to remain in overall aluminium right up until the last was withdrawn in the 70s, whilst other FAA trainers adopted Light Aircraft Grey.
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