Rasberry Ripple paint scheme questions ...

[Gary F]

  So I'm familiar with the scheme itself but what else is involved?  Is it an anniversary scheme of sorts, or does it belong to some kind of test squadron ... that kind of stuff.
  Are ac painted this way usually clean of weapons/stores or would they carry test weapons or developemental stores ... again, that kind of stuff.

thanks
Gary F

ps  I'm considering this for a project and wouldn't want to do some basic screw up to the bird in general.

thanks

[AeroplaneDriver]

I think it was the standard scheme for test aircraft, mostly at Boscombe Down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroplane_and_Armament_Experimental_Establishment

[Maverick]

AD nailed it Gary,

I guess an analog could be the orange/white test ships at Nellis.  Pretty much every photo I've seen, however, tends to show a clean airframe, which tends to suggest airframe/flight tests rather than weapons use.  When test weapons are carried, they are invariably done so with conventionally painted aircraft, although these frequently have black/white camera calibration markings.

Regards,

Mav

[AeroplaneDriver]

Just to add, it's also the standard scheme for the Empire Test Pilot's School, with some exceptions such as the Grippen, and I think the Alpha Jet.  ETPS is also at Boscombe.

[Nick]

There's a great book by Adrian Balch, Testing Colours, which covers many of the aircraft and schemes. You might want to grab a library copy for a read up on the topic.

[TsrJoe]

iv saved a few of the what-if 'rasperry ripple' profiles on my TSR research site ... def one of my favourite schemes ...

http://groups.msn.com/TSR-2ResearchGroup/whatifimagefolder.msnw

cheers, Joe

[Radish]

Fancy doing a Raspberry Ripple Lightning, with a Wafer stuck out of the fuselage and a Cherry on the nose.

[P1127]

'Raspberry ripple' was introduced in 1976 as the standard colour scheme for aircraft permanently assigned to the UK Ministry of Defence Procurement Executive (MOD(PE)) units - these were the Royal Aircraft (later Aerospace) Establishment (RAE), the Aieroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (AAEE)* and the Empire Test Pilots School (ETPS). Also included were 'child' units, such as the Blind Landing Experimental Unit and the Royal Radar and Signals Establishments.

It replaced a number of schemes (not all standardised) that the various organisations used.

Aircraft carried Raspberry Ripple (in general applied when they were re-painted) unless they needed another scheme or were only on loan to the Establishments. Some aircraft, in spite of long careers, were never re-painted in RR - e.g. BAC 111 XX105 and the current harvard.

The various Royal establishments were later brought together in to first the Defence Research Agency (DRA), then AAEE was added to make Defence and Evaluation Research Agency (DERA) and this was finally privatised as Qinetiq.

DRA/DEAR retained the basic RR scheme - I think the most recent recipient was either the VAAC Harrier when finally repainted or DTEO Piper - but Qinetiq has moved aay from it. The ETPS BAC 111 was painted in a variation which 'modernised' the basic colours, as was their Twin Squirrel, however later aircraft have retained their delivery scheme - Jaguar T2, Alpha jet and Agusta Power.

Sadly, we are unlikely to see anymore aircraft in the scheme - the ASTRA hawk has already been repainted form RR to all black, and the Alphas will follow if they need repainting (The paint shop drawings already exist)


* Later Aircraft and Armament Evaluation Establishment. It had a short spell as part of the DTEO

[Gary F]

Thanks for all the info and links guys ... appreciate it.  Feel better about giving the scheme a try on one of my Intruders now.

thakns again,
Gary F