Airspeed Oxford - general 'hack'

[Mancunian airman]

Hi all

If I was to have such an aircraft on my airfield would it carry any particular markings ?

I obviously presume the usual RAF roundels and wing/tail markings but what else could I expect to see ?

 

any help and guidance would be appreciated .

 

Ian

[Ossington 2]

Maybe some BAT flight yellow triangles? There were a lot of them, they were co-located with OCU's/HCU's and I suspect many a pilot would find an excuse to visit his old squadron. 

[Don149]

If it was a slightly tatty , well used Ox Box it would most likely still be in green/dark earth above , trainer yellow below

with the turret removed ! . If it`s postwar it would be overall silver with yellow training bands. The odd few I saw

were in the latter .

                         Don .   

[JWM]

The most colourful is likely Free French one:

However the most interesting is I think any of "field bomber" from Habbaniya, 1941.

I am not sure if it is right scheme. I made mine with red (not black)  letter only on nose...

Cheers

Jerzy-Wojtek

 

[Graham Boak]

Depending on period, trainer Oxfords (not all had the turret) would have the yellow halfway up the sides (up to 1940),  only on the underside, or with yellow fuselage bands and upper-surface wingtips. I suspect that repainting them was not a priority.

[Ratch]

3 hours ago, Ossington said:

Maybe some BAT flight yellow triangles? There were a lot of them, they were co-located with OCU's/HCU's and I suspect many a pilot would find an excuse to visit his old squadron. 

Rather like this. The Signals Development Unit (SDU) moved onto Hinton-In-The-Hedges airfield on 15 April 1943, operating a rare mixture of aircraft including Ansons, Masters and Oxfords to Whitleys. Some of these aircraft had been absorbed from No. 1551 Flight, a Blind Approach Calibration Unit, which had been based at Bicester. It was agreed in March 1943 that they should carry large yellow triangles on the nose sides and amidships.

 

 

 

[Mancunian airman]

 Thanks for the input lads.

 

I already have a BAT Oxford but I was thinking that the station Commander would have his own aircraft, perhaps an old kite Yes, but without any BAT markings.

Is it possible that he could have had an aircraft that was purely camouflaged, (I dont know what colour the underside would be ?) and used as his personal 'hack' ?

I am thinking late 1943 . . . .

 

 

Ian

[Graham Boak]

More likely an Anson than an Oxford as a "Station Flight" rather than a personal machine.  Ansons were available in larger numbers.  The US however did have a number of Oxfords in the comms/hack role (I.e. at least one...)   A Proctor might be used as a suitable personal aircraft, or if they still existed a pre-war Vega Gull or Hendy Heck.  I've a feeling they might have been kept for higher ranks, however.  It might be a good excuse to grab one of the forthcoming new kits of Gulls/Proctor 1s.

 

The extra Yellow markings wouldn't have been on non-training aircraft, and I've seen a colour photo showing that at least one Anson had Sky undersides.  I have a feeling that the "Everything else in Yellow undersides" was strictly applied at the start of the war but things were more relaxed by 1943.

[Mancunian airman]

Many thanks for that Graham.

 

I have another Oxford, in kit form but it looks like I shall have to look out  for 'Annie'

 

The Station Commander was a Group Captain so I did wonder if he was of sufficient high rank to warrant his own aircraft ?

[T-21]

Waltham station flight used Oxford T1372  and Tiger Moth T6315, these aircraft would have been in standard dark green and brown uppers and trainer yellow I

undersides. The Tiger Moth went to the Admiralty 6.6.45.

Edited March 7, 2018 by T-21
Corrections

[Mancunian airman]

That is of great interest, Thank you T21.

 I would like to know where you sourced that info in case there is more to contribute to my book that I am currently writing.

I have the Oxford as being used for SBA training but that was early days when 100 was building up to become operational. The Oxford was only there for about 6 weeks

 Was the tiggie for the G/Capt ?

 

Ian

Edited March 7, 2018 by Mancunian airman

[T-21]

RAF Flying Training  and Support Units  since 1912  by Ray Sturtivant  Air-Britain. I crossed checked the Oxford serial in the Air Britain  T serial book  as It was a digit out in Rays book presume transpose error as T1373. The Group Captain at Metheringham regularly used their station flight Tiger Moth so I would say yes. All the Bomber Command squadrons tended to use an Oxford and Tiger Moth on strength. The Comms flights used Proctors.

 

 

[Mr T]

An Oxford with a Bomber Squadron makes sense as it could be used to for instrument rating etc. Post war single seat jet fighter squadrons often had a Meteor or Vampire trainer for that purpose so I understand.