A/C colours

A very simple question which I expect a number of you may know off hand, but with my books in storage I cannot research myself: when did the RFC/RAF first begin using blue tint for the undersurface of their A/C? I recently purchased a piece of aircraft fabric, with roundel, which is claimed to be WW 1 vintage but the bluish coloring of the surrounding fabric leaves me with some real doubts. I can still get my money back as it is a reputable dealer with a good return policy, and so I come to you all. Any other good suggestions for how to authenticate something like this short of an electron scanning microscope? Thanks all. Matt W.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Matt:
The information that I have is the under surfaces of the wings and tailplanes and sometimes tne fuselage were only clear doped. The lwer wing roundels were often just the red and blue wite the clear dope linen providing the white middle ring. My answer would be not in WW1.
Blue skies,
Dan-San Abbott

>claimed to be WW 1 vintage but the
>bluish coloring of the surrounding fabric
>leaves me with some real doubts.

The M1C's in Palestine or Mesopotamia are thought to have been painted in sky blue undersides. I think current thought is that a mix of roundal white and insignia blue was used to create it. You might want to check with that though. That is from memory.

Paint schemes were a bit more lax in Palestine and Mesopotamia as the air war didnt have as many aircraft and being seen when forced down was often as important as being camouflaged in the air. Witness the white and one yellow F2A's and F2B's of 1 Sqn AFC.

If it is WWI and from an M1C in Palestine or Mesopotamia then it is pretty unique. I would check up on that though like I said it is from memory.



cam
AFC - http://members.xoom.com/PointCook/index.htm

[PeterL]

It was not uncommon for the 2F1 Naval Camelto have blue under surfaces. When I first saw the example in the IWM in 1960 it had blue under surfaces. It has since been recovered and now has a natural linen finish underneath. The size of roundel and whether or not there is an aileron break will give a clue.

Peter L