For the same reason the RAF fighters had the Sky band around the fuselage and yellow outer leading edges, or the D Day aircraft had the black/white stripes, US fighters had white or black bands on wings and tails surfaces and Japanese aircraft had the inner wing leading edges painted yellow – quick identification in a confused environment. All air forces had them and still do in some form or other.

I think UFA were having a bad props department day.

I’d go for it being a mock up of some kind.

Apparently the MACHINE disapproves of rhymes. Perhaps the mods could kill the PC option.

BTW the word we are all looking for is ST (BITS) and remove the B.

This egg walked into a bar ……

Because the British are one of the most bloody-minded nations on earth, and some screaming foreigner, with a straggly moustache and funny hairdo, is not going to tell us what to do (Angela Merkel take note.)

Well apart from the fact that Edgar has hit the nail on the head, I’d say I don’t really care why they fought the Battle of Britain but I am bloody glad they did.

As I seem to have inadvertently started a robust discussion could I say in my defence that just like the next enthusiast (for that’s all I am in aviation terms) I like to see examples of these wonderful machines flying and I understand the regulatory problem. But my quibble lies in two rather different things.

The first is that so often, and this is not the enthusiasts’ fault, that if the media gets hold of a story then what we know will be some rather battered and dirty parts seems to morph into “complete pristine buried whatevers” which then can lead to more “robust” discussion :highly_amused: .

While secondly sometimes the end result after often many years of building using few original parts and lots of newly made ones becomes somehow “original” in the eyes of the less informed and that tends to offend my admittedly narrow understanding (being in the trade so to speak) of what is actually an artefact of historic importance. Restorations and replicas are fine in their place but we also need to recognise that our only true contact with the past is the untouched original.

In the end I suggest that there is a place for both in this enthusiasm we share – neither should be exclusive of the other.