RAF roundels - and rectangular insignia

[Silencer1]

Hi!


Whats' the origin and correct naming of the rectangular additions to RAF roundels on the certain periods of the history?
In 1930th some figthing Squadrons' biplanes have been painted with large rectangles, with checkerboard, triangle or another pattern. During WW2 this practice has been dropped, and in jet era, it's returns for a while.


I suspect, that this hav been a kind of high-visibility markings for recognizing aircraft of the particular squadron. Anyway, I was unlucky, searching the net for this...


Thanks in advance!


P.S. Good inflight photo of Gloster Gamecock (courtesy: SDASM Flickr archive) - with very distinctive checkerboard bar over top wing

 

[Cy-27]

The only references I can find are from a book on the Lightning which describes the markings as " rectangular bars on each side of the RAF roundel" . No mention of the origins . Some examples below ...

 

[Thorvic]

They are Squadron bars, showing off the colours of the Squadron using a mixture of colours and shapes, probably originates from the school system and their houses, as per 'Harry Potter' and the four houses of Hogwarts.

 

[Bill Walker]

"Aircraft Camouflage and Markings" by Robertson traces the practice to late 1916, when "squadron devices", consisting of simple geometric shapes and bold colours were added to aircraft. It appears the early ones were done by the squadrons involved, and varied quite a bit from plane to plane. Examples I have seen include triangles or hexagons on the fuselage side, and stripes around the rear fuselage. There are numerous other examples on pages 42 to 45 of the book. The practice continued, on and off, post war.

During the 1920s and 1930s these markings gradually transformed into the bars in the post above. Again there was lots of variation. Fighter squadrons seemed to prefer a stripe on the fuselage side, either ahead of the roundel or on both sides, with the stripe repeating on the top wing. For example, No. 3 Squadron had stripes the full length of the fuselage, repeated on the top of the fuselage and on the top wing between the roundels. There are colour examples on page 85 of the book, and the post war usage seems to match these. These all went away when camo was introduced.

It appears that the squadron bars came back in about 1947, when the requirement for sky fuselage bands on fighters was dropped. A standard size and shape was introduced for fighters in the early 1950s, but it seems the actual colours and patterns used are unofficial, and were left up to the squadron. There are colour drawings of dozens of these markings on pages 185 to 188. Hopefully someone else can provide more info on that.

 

[J.A.W.]

AFAIR, the post-war reintroduction of the colourful squadron flashes coincided with the generally promulgated move away from camo-schemes & back to the overall silver-aluminium with C-type roundels.

The 2nd TAF had deleted the sky fuselage band/spinner ID - during the war - to avoid appearing too similar to LW planes..

 

[Silencer1]

Thanks a lot for the information about squadron "bars"!


Although, I'm still looking to obtain the reasons of it's initial introduction in 1916 and reappearing in jet age.


Perhaps, these bars allows to increase overall visibility of aircraft, overall painted in aluminium finish - for example for formation flying, and to increase the ability of pilots' for cooperation into their squadron? Most of the bars have been high contrast patterns - in terms of colors/element shapes


But how these bars of small size would be useful in the jet flying? Just as element of decoration and squadron's tradition?

 

[Bill Walker]

The original 1916 markings were to identify the unit the aircraft belonged to while in flight. Large scale air to air combat was just beginning then, and knowing the identity of friendly units would help in tactics and in post flight reporting. I suspect the markings continued partly for this reason, and partly for squadron pride.

 

[GTX]

The original 1916 markings were to identify the unit the aircraft belonged to while in flight. Large scale air to air combat was just beginning then, and knowing the identity of friendly units would help in tactics and in post flight reporting. I suspect the markings continued partly for this reason, and partly for squadron pride.

Agreed

 

[Silencer1]

Now, with the members' kind help I'm more familiar with the RAF squadron markings - and hope, that this is correct name for color pattern bars outside the RAF roundels.

Although, one question remains, if there were any official regulations on it's size, colors, like to the roundels? How all those squadrons managed to have different markings?

Thanks a lot for sharing of knowledge!