Or did they...?
Or did they...?
Because the prop becomes invisible when spinning, so why bother?Why didn't pilots paint their propellers?
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Oh, sorry, sir, you're right
Weight, reciprocating mass, balance... the latter a surprisingly big deal, it's why you see Boeing prepaint airliner rudders before they go onto the plane so the techies can adjust trim for the variance in weight between sides.
I do know that authorities frowned on personalisation of aircraft. Even Albert Ball got flack from them over his red spinner. The British pilot was intended to go unremarked. The hierarchy did not even approve of the adulation of Aces in the Great War. Some got away with personal adornment for a month or two until a visiting big-wig spotted it and then a repaint job was quickly applied to the offending surface. Strangely this does not seem to apply to the much more rigid Senior Service, where aircraft were often decorated in different colour schemes.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
There was some allowance for special paint jobs on RFC/RAF planes in Home Defence or Training Squadrons. Some of them were outrageous.
However, for active combat squadrons, anything beyond flight colours (small variances for flights within a particular squadron, like black, red, and blue for A, B, and C Flights respectively in Naval 10 Sqn) were frowned upon. Naval 10 nose stripes were only on their Camels for a month or so, before being ordered painted off, IIRC, despite their fame today.
What Rob says above was very top-down driven to remove individuality from units, in anything I've read. The hierarchy firmly believed in a "Team" approach to warfare, and supposedly didn't approve of grand-standing by anyone (other than the top general?).
PS: Note that even this plane didn't have a painted prop?
Mike
"Flying is learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss" Douglas Adams
"Wings of Glory won't skin your elbows and knees while practicing." OldGuy59
i know some us bomber squadrons during ww2 did have different propeller tip markings. i recall red, yellow, red, white and blue etc.
Again, WW1 thread....
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
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