Need Plane Insignia Help Quick

Rittm · 25 November 1998, 08:59 AM

Hi there. My books are packed away because I'm getting ready to move, but I'm working on an art project that I need to know the correct plane insignias for the French, Italeins, Austrians, and Russians.

Okay, I think the French is a rondel with blue center, white middle, and red outside. Do I have the French correct?

For the Itaileins I have a rondel with a red center, white middle, and green outside. Do I have Italy correct?

Austria looks like a maltese cross or a red and white Austrian sheild with crown on top of a Austrian flag going sideways? Do I have the Austrians correct? which one?

The Russians? There isn't a plane photo here that I can guess from. Does anybody know?

I'd really appreciate your help. Thank you.
Rittm

rammjaeger · 25 November 1998, 09:24 AM

The Russians? If I remember right a rondel with white center, blue middle and red outside. Could tomorrow scan a picture for you if necessary.

Rittm · 25 November 1998, 09:38 AM

Hannes,
Thanks for the assistance. Is that a light blue or dark blue?
Rittm

25 November 1998, 12:49 PM

from the best of my knowledge the french and italian are correct. although, i have a painting as well as a model of

francesco baracca's spad xiii and they both show, (from the outer ring to inner ring) red, white and green. the austrian planes i've seen show just a black maltese, and the russian planes have a red outer ring with a thin blue center ring and a large white center. for color drawings of all mentioned above go to http://canopus.lpi.msk.su/~watson/wwifighters.html. hope this helps. leon

26 November 1998, 02:26 AM

Earlier in the war, Austrian aircraft were marked on their wing surfaces with a cross patee on a white field, with red bars on either side.

As for the shade of blue in the Russian roundel, I've seen varying degrees of darkness, but most have been a lighter blue than, say, the American roundel (which is also red-blue-white). For a good estimate, simply copy the shade of blue in the current Russian flag.

rammjaeger · 27 November 1998, 07:32 AM

I have drawings and photos of Russian and many other aircraft and markings for you but I get every e-mail with attachement back ("no such address"). I used only 72 dpi and 50 compression - so it should work! What for a waste of time and effort!

I used your e-mail address of your last mail too - useless. Did you set a limitation for the size of e-mails reaching you or what happened? Do you have an idea?

Regards

Rittm · 30 November 1998, 01:14 PM

Hannes,
Thank you for the pictures!
Rittm

12 December 1998, 09:24 AM

The subject of aircraft markings is quite complex, even for the US, who entered the war late. Our official marking was the blue circle with the white star and red center. However, this appeard to much like a cross from a distance, so we opted for the cockade in France. The Russian cockade is similar to ours, only the width of the circles varies. The Austrians started the war with just wide red and white badns on wings and tail surfaces, also sometimes on the fuselage. I think it was 1915 they added the EK, and by the end of the year had dropped the red and white bands. The Italians used a combination of colored bands and cockades. The cockades were on the upper surfaces, and occasionally on the fuselage sides, while the undersurfaces were painted red, clear doped or silver (depeneidng on the airplane type), and green, in three fairlry equal sections. The colors for the cockades was either way, not a specified patern as in the French, British, and US services, so they could be green white red, or red white green from the outside in. There is too much to try and put here. Let me know if you need more details.