Were they still using military serials for trooping flights in 1953? Might help identify it

I noticed was that the aeroplane nacelles were both doped blue. A little earlier in the programme we had been told that French soldier’s uniforms had been changed, early on in the conflict, from Revolution Red to blue.

Was there, I wonder, anything more than coincidence in that French and British aeroplane fuselages were the same colour as their respective soldier’s uniforms ie blue and khaki(olive)?

Roger Smith.

Co-incidence.

The nacelle is more of a blue grey, and this was probably only on Farmans – other types were other colours – much down to the treatment of the fabric (I recall a grey rubberised type was used early in the war) Later French a/c could have yellow, green/brown, aluminium or green/brown/ligh tbrown/black.

British aircraft developed their khaki colour as the best defence against fabric rot through UV – colour was secondary.

Propstrike thanks for that pic, for those who have not read the story there are more pics and a rather shocking account of MOD attitudes from the pilot at…http://www.tintagelweb.co.uk/Tintagel%20Plane%20Crash.htm

Talk about synchronicity….:

Expert hands lifted me onto the deck, guided by one of the senior designers of the ejection seat who fortuitously happened to be a tourist fisherman on board.

The Australians decided against the TSR-2 becouse of the utter lack of faith put in it by elements of the British establishment. Had the political will and money been available to keep the project alive the requisite faith would have been shown and the RAAF would likely have not been persuaded against the type.

The only thing tactical about the TSR-2 was the usage of the word in the name, to all intents and purposes this was a theater bomber. If the RAF’s V-force is no longer planning on making nuclear penetration missions into the Soviet Union beyond the range of the TSR-2 then there is no reason for it to still exist.

Evidence? The link shows a primary source explanation from the Aussies that it was as much a geo-political decision and financial as to the capability of the aircraft.

Note that the actual recommendation was for the RA-5C as this was available quicker!

Sorry for keeping this thread Meteor:o
Im sure DG202 did wear the brown, green and yellow scheme, as did other F.9/40s. I will have to dig through library to absolutely confirm.
The Tamiya kit also depicts it in this scheme, they are very thorough in research and unlikely to get it wrong.
BTW, I thought all British prototypes of the war used this colour scheme, am I wrong?

Tamyia’s research was spot on -they modelled and illustrated the aircraft as it is depicted today. Unfortunately, both the colour scheme and the configuration are wrong for 1940s.

The prototype colours were whatever was the designated scheme for that aircraft type, with yellow undersides.

A similar situation existed with the Gloster Whittle – she was DG/DE when first flown, but late re-painted in Ocean Grey/Green. II’m not 100% sure she ever flew in green/brown with late war roundels as currently displayed.

An ASW version of the Vanguard was considered early in the Shackleton replacement programme.

Nimrod model had transit on 4 jets for speed them patrol on two to maximise fuel burn/time on station.

That was the model. They don’t turn engines off these days unless they have to!

There were a lot of ex-German gliders used by Service Glider clubs in Germany post-war – much ex-NSFK (Hitler Youth Gliding!) equipment used

There was one at Fassberg.
Most seemed to carry the roundel on the rudder

The serials system has gone a bit nuts since the C-17 team reserved ZZ171-9 (given an ‘out of range’ serial to signify the fact that they were on lease and not part of the RAF engineering inventory) since then we have has the 32 Squadron Agustas given ZR, the A-330Ms have ZM*** reserved, the HUnters, Reapers and Beech 350s in the ZZ range – and also had the AAC Defenders given unused serials in the ZG range first issued in the 80s – presumably to match the Islanders (actually the same happened for the third 32 Squadron Twin Squirrel)

Prior to all this it was almost strictly in order (allowing for blackout blocks – and even they were abandoned during the ZH range)

First ‘out of sequence’ serials were for the Hawk 200 – ZG200 and ZH200