Bombers in International Orange Query

Started by Cobra, June 13, 2011, 10:40:18 PM

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Cobra

Hey Guys,a Question just kinda hit me, bear with me on this,have Any Bombers of the RAF ever been Painted or had sections of the Body painted in International Orange? i know USAF Bombers had been for 'Over the Pole' flights,but i was Curious if the RAF had ever done Anything Similar? wasn't sure if my Query would bring results with Google. thanks for looking. Dan

Maverick

Dan, I've seen Shackeltons and Lincolns with IR sections, although the Lincoln was a test bed and I believe the Shack was more a training a/c.

Regards,

Mav

PR19_Kit

RAF aircraft that required Hi-Viz areas were usually painted in a bright red shade. The Hastings in one of the Cosford hangars has panels on its wings done in red, and some on the nose as well.

When my Dad was in 47 Sqdn. at Topcliffe in the 50's the Squadron flew the support flights for the British Greenland Expedition and all the aircraft used had LARGE areas of red overpainting the standard RAF Transport Command White-over-grey-with-blue-lightning-stripe scheme. AFAIK they never used Orange in those days.
Kit's Rule 1 ) Any aircraft can be improved by fitting longer wings, and/or a longer fuselage
Kit's Rule 2) The backstory can always be changed to suit the model

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Regards
Kit

Mossie

Kit's right, although there were some cases of orange being used, this gave way to red.  This was because dayglo orange weathered rapidly.  There was one exception I can think of in the RAF & that was trainer aircraft in the 1960's, like this Varsity:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air/Vickers-668-Varsity/1247555/L/&sid=85c34eb017eaba6155c6842e797951e5

Other services & organisations used orange more widely than the RAF, the Royal Aircraft Establishment being one of them (although RAE could wear any random scheme until the mid seventies when Rasberry Ripple took over).  Dayglo was initially used, but a flat shade was used later due to weathering like on this Beverley:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air/Blackburn-B-101-Beverley/0759484/L/&sid=ee22069bb8fababb53353df5bb54ef57

The Royal Navy used dayglo orange patches for it's SAR helicopters in the 60's & 70's, worn over the normal camouflage.  This eventually gave way to red in the late seventies (I think) but could be seen well into the eightites until the whole fleet was repainted.  This pic show's two RN Wessex's, the one in fron has orange patces, the one behind red.  They still use the same scheme on Sea Kings today, albiet over a lighter grey:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Navy/Westland-WS-55-2-Whirlwind/0701875/L/&sid=668fa0e91626a604b1b894cca97da231

I'm not sure if any of the shade's used were exactly 'International Orange', but they're probably pretty close except maybe for the one seen on the Beverley.

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