Seafire.IIc's colour on carrier - Edit 880 Sq HMS Indomitable

[Troy Smith]

 

Seafire IIc , seen other shots of this, found the pic an age ago,.and it's been sitting as an open tab on this tablet for months.

Don't recall seeing it in @Etiennedup Flickr stream,  so thought I'd post it before I forget.

I'll see if I can find the unit in a mo

 

[Graham Boak]

880 on Indomitable.

[FinnAndersen]

Is it just me, or has the rearmost Seafire it's undercarriage splayed a bit (Legs not perpendicular to the wing). compared to the rightmost?

[Troy Smith]

Thanks Graham

I found another shot in the old PSL Spitfire book.

 

are these from the same series?

Seafire by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

Edit  note position of underwing roundels on last plane, extreme right.

 

 

Seafire by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

Seafire IIc,  c1942. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

Quote

A Fleet Air Arm Seafire IIc 7-T of 880 Sqn. on board HMS Indomitable.

 

the last one is for sure.

anyone have any serials? 

[tempestfan]

7-T looks like AB189, but I am looking from an iPhone; one of the others is —89.

[Graham Boak]

Note the Sky Blue undercowling on some but not all the Seafires.  Plus the insides of the undercarriage doors and the legs themselves appear lighter than the Sky on the outer side of the doors - not just an effect of the angle of the light.

 

From memory, on Pedestal you could tell Indomitable from Victorious by different lines down the deck, but I don't recall which and they may have changed anyway.  Also the bridge arrangement is different on Indomitable from the earlier armoured deck carriers.

[Andre B]

Mmm...

Interesting photos.

No yellow id-bands on the leading edge of the wing and rather high demarkation line between the camouflage on the upside and the sky (?) on the underside. Was that common with FAA Spitfires?

 

Cheers / André

[Graham Boak]

The yellow leading edges (and the equally-lacking Sky fuselage bands) were specifically a Fighter Command requirement and would not normally be carried by FAA fighters.  Both were carried by 880 Sq's Sea Hurricanes in its previous commission on HMS Indomitable, but this seems likely to be related to its earlier temporary role in the defence of Northern Scotland, particularly Orkney.  It should be added that when its companion unit 800 Sq converted from Fulmars to Sea Hurricanes in Kenya mid-commission, its fighters lacked such trim - apart from two examples borrowed from 880.  But 880 did  add them to a Hurricane Mk.II that went sick on delivery to Java and was then adopted and modified by the FAA - keeping your squadron distinct from any other does seem to have been a feature of the FAA markings at this stage of the war, rather than any strict conformance with standards in such matters.

 

Note that the light colour wrapping around the leading edge highlights the filler in the leading edge seam - aerodynamically not a recommended feature of designs!

[Seahawk]

6 hours ago, tempestfan said:

7-T looks like AB189, but I am looking from an iPhone; one of the others is —89.

Think 7-T's MB189.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Seahawk

[Troy Smith]

30 minutes ago, Seahawk said:

Think 7-T's MB189.

looking at this again closely, click it and you go to Flickr and it enlarges

Seafire by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

I can just see the botom of the 'T' and and'89' at the end of the serial, the chap in cockpit looks to be this chap

 

if so we have one of those rare events, period colour shots of an identified airframe on both sides

 

I'm going to stick an @iang  and @85sqn  in as this maybe old news, but they maybe too add some info,  Ian is good on deck markings, and  I presume there must be some info on this series of period colour as well, maybe for the US press?

 

cheers

T

PS note the dark pink discs on the prop blades identifying them as Jablo 

Quote

From the Dowty-Rotol service manual for the R-/5F5/-

Note first page is the original scheme of wood blade identification,

from

https://forum.keypublishing.com/forum/historic-aviation/79363-questions-on-spitfire-propellers-merged?p=1771447#post1771447

 

 

[iang]

The Seafires are all Indomitable. 

 

As for the deck makings of Illustrious/Implacable Class carriers during WW2:

 

Illustrious: solid centre line with distance markings and feet indicated as commissioned until Jan 1941; dashed line formed of elongated triangles 1942-45

 

Victorious: dashed centre line formed of rectangles as commissioned until 1945 (the only other carrier with a centre dashed line of the same style was Unicorn)

 

Formidable: solid centre line with regular thin distance markings, as commissioned until 1945 

 

Indomitable: solid centre line with distance markings, as commissioned until 1945, and thinner dashed line of rectangles offset to port than ran about half the length of the flight deck (roughly from the stern to rear of island).

 

Indefatigable: solid centre line with few thin distance markings (often gives the appearance of a solid line without any intersections), as commissioned until 1945

 

Implacable: solid centre line with thick distance markings, though these seem to be fainter than the centre line, as commissioned until 1945

Edited April 12, 2019 by iang

[85sqn]

Hi Troy I made 7-T MB183 from the Tamiya VB kit with a resin Seafire IIc conversion kit made from Aeroclub I think. Decals were from On Target/Model Alliance for that aircraft. Rather annoyingly the red and white codes were abit out of register. I wanted to do that for years as that first colour photo you posted was in a book called British Aircraft of WWII. 

 

I used a light blue for the underside which off of the top of my head was an RLM shade.