Why do some Hurricanes have one black wing underside and one white wing underside? Does this serve as identification to AA gunners and other aircraft due to the Hurri’s similarity to the FW-190?
I’ld figure it’s for idendentifaction, whether air to air or ground to air, it wasn’t isolated to hurricanes though, I’ve seen it on Spitfires and Gladiators aswell and a gladiator certainly doesn’t look too much like a 190
Yes, I have seen it on both Spits and Hurricanes, to aid in recognition to the gunners on the ground.
Note that the “black and white” underside scheme was pre Battle of Britain. This would have pre-dated the introduction of the 190?
I believe the underside colour was changed to “Sky” in August 1940.
I think its ID, because no matter what the plane’s silhouette looks like, if you see a bunch of high altitude bombers heading directly for your hometown, and the airplanes are little dots, you wouldn’t take the time to look at the outlines.
B&W- no shoot
other- SHOOT LIKE HECK!!!
[:D]
There were two periods in which British day fighters were to be painted with the lower port wings black. January to June 6, 1940, during which the port tail surfaces were also black and the rest of the undersurfaces were white and aluminum, and November 27, 1940 to April 22, 1941. After June 6, 1940 undersides were painted Sky, and the black applied after November 27 was a “distemper”, a washable black applied only to the port wing undersurface with the remainder of the aircraft undersides remaining Sky. Not all aircraft were repainted immediately, so there is some fuzziness in the changeover periods. The black was for recognition purposes for both airborne and ground gunners and pilots.
Thanks guys. Hey, should we have a curiosity thread so that people (like me) with stupid questions can ask them?
or a forum for that matter [:)] it would be nice to have that, Q-n-A forum
[#ditto]