I wish this were better quality… but it’s still worthy of posting. This showed up on one of the newsgroups in the last couple of days and ain’t something you see every day!
Image source/credit: usenet posting
F-84G of the IIAF’s Golden Crown Demo Team, 1959
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Now that is wild. Never saw that one before.
Regards, Rick
Very different… I like it. I hope nobody thinks I’m a total dunce[D)] … but what is the IIAF… my guess just from the colors of the a/c is India. Am I close.
'Tis the Imperial Iranian Air Force. And you’re no dunce. Don’t feel bad, guy, cuz I’d never seen this scheme before I found the image last night…
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Aha… I see… that makes sense. Cool thanks BW!
Was that an X Thunderbirds jet by any chance ?
Regards, Rick
That would make sense Rick.
The name plate under the cockpit rail appears to read, “General Khatami”. I wonder if they had a general leading their aero team or if that is some kind of honorary thing?
That certainly is a neat picture anyway. I wonder what the top and bottom looked like?
That would be a really cool paint scheme to put on a model if that question could be answered.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
I think that this team’s scheme was merely ‘inspired’ by that of the Thunderbirds. Up until the fall of the Shah the Iranians were quite close with the USA in many respects and many of their pilots underwent training here in the States from the 40’s to the 70’s.
This is one of only two photos that I’ve seen which show a Golden Crowns F-84, the other only shows the nose. At least one of the jets immediately behind the main subject belongs to the Golden Crowns (behind the cockpit section) and you can see the starboard horizontal stab, which seem to show a red and white striped pattern. This is also barely visible on the starboard stab of the subject aircraft. Whether it was repeated on the lower surfaces of the stabs is hard to tell but it looks as though there’s something there.
Anyhoo, if these were patterned after the Thunderbirds, then it’s possible that the wings would have no special markings at all:
This is simply speculation and only suggested as a possible avenue of thought…
There’s a section of the IIAF forum dedicated to this team, with alotta images. Mostly kinda 'eh and mostly smallish, but some good stuff. If you care to check it out you can do so here:
I had discovered this some time ago but never really checked it out until recently and so don’t know all of what’s posted there. Registration, unfortunately, is mandatory to view the postings.
Anyhoo, this is a cool shot which I found on that forum… a Golden Crowns F-5 flown by the team leader at the time, Major Khalili:
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Are the decal-making people seeing this? Hope they get an idea.