Can anyone help with this French AF badge please?

[fightersweep]

Hi all; 

 

As the title says, can anyone help me identify this French AF badge please? I'm no expert on French AF insignia, but I hope to build Max Holste Broussard G-BJGW  when she belonged to Graham Warner in the 1980s. The next question would be, is there a decal of said badge, and if not, can I find a good scan of one somewhere so I can make a decal?

 

0023846

 

Thanks in advance;

Steve

[Timmas]

I can't help identify the badge I'm afraid, but if you can't find a decal of it anywhere, I'd be willing to draw it for you. I'm a professional Illustrator /  Photoshop user and I'm offering a free one-off decal drawing service in to BM members who are in a fix if it's of any interest.

[CT7567]

Far from an expert but I can tell you the badge seems to represent a Gallic warrior from the Roman era (in  cartoonish fashion, reminiscent of the French comic character Asterix).

 

The Armee de L'Air unit SPA 96 Gaulois uses a similar badge but theirs has a more realistic representation of the warrior and consistently uses a lozenge-shaped background, vs the star in a circle seen here.

 

https://www.traditions-air.fr/unit/photo/096.htm

[fightersweep]

1 hour ago, Timmas said:

I can't help identify the badge I'm afraid, but if you can't find a decal of it anywhere, I'd be willing to draw it for you. I'm a professional Illustrator /  Photoshop user and I'm offering a free one-off decal drawing service in to BM members who are in a fix if it's of any interest.

Many thanks for the reply. Yes! I would certainly be interested in the service. I have someone lined up to produce the decals, but I just need a good illustration that I can supply first.

 

1 hour ago, CT7567 said:

Far from an expert but I can tell you the badge seems to represent a Gallic warrior from the Roman era (in  cartoonish fashion, reminiscent of the French comic character Asterix).

 

The Armee de L'Air unit SPA 96 Gaulois uses a similar badge but theirs has a more realistic representation of the warrior and consistently uses a lozenge-shaped background, vs the star in a circle seen here.

 

https://www.traditions-air.fr/unit/photo/096.htm

Thanks for the info! I haven't been able to find a nice close up shot of the badge, but now you mention it, I can see the warrior image there. Winged helmet or something? Seems to be set on a star too. I thought there would be good references online for squadron insignia, but it's actually quite difficult to nail down. I'm also trying to get a good image of the badge for Escadrille 6 of the Swiss Air Force, and that's proving just as difficult!

 

Best regards;

Steve

[CT7567]

1 hour ago, fightersweep said:

Thanks for the info! I haven't been able to find a nice close up shot of the badge, but now you mention it, I can see the warrior image there. Winged helmet or something? Seems to be set on a star too. I thought there would be good references online for squadron insignia, but it's actually quite difficult to nail down. I'm also trying to get a good image of the badge for Escadrille 6 of the Swiss Air Force, and that's proving just as difficult!

 

Do you know anything about which unit(s) the Broussard may have been marked for? My knowledge of AdA units is limited to very late Cold War combat types, but going back at least to the 1960s I believe it was standard practice to have code numbers that correspond to the wing (escadron). Also worth noting that at least for some types in the later era the unit badges differ from one side to the other since the insignia were for the squadrons but aircraft were shared within the wing. So you may need to search for a port-side view to confirm if there is a different (or any) marking there.

 

Re: the Swiss Escadrille 6 badge, you may get better results using the alternate German term (Fliegerstaffel 6):

[fightersweep]

Thanks for the reply! The Escadrille 6 badge should be perfect! I did search on Fliegerstaffel 6, but all I could find was a photo of the embroidered patch, which may lack the definition for producing a decal. The image you posted should be perfect although I haven't checked the file size yet. 

 

As for the Broussard: French AF, units, organisation etc is a complete mystery to me. If it helps, here is a link to a photo of the aircraft I hope to build. It's on Airliners.net, so I won't post here due to copyright and all that! The Broussard was flown at airshows here in the UK during the 80s in these colours, so I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I'm guessing that the colour scheme and markings are authentic.

 

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled/Max-Holste-MH-1521M-Broussard/1366397

 

Thanks for all your help so far. I do appreciate it.

 

Steve

Edited June 17, 2019 by fightersweep

[AV O]

5 hours ago, fightersweep said:

Hi all; 

 

As the title says, can anyone help me identify this French AF badge please? I'm no expert on French AF insignia, but I hope to build Max Holste Broussard G-BJGW  when she belonged to Graham Warner in the 1980s. The next question would be, is there a decal of said badge, and if not, can I find a good scan of one somewhere so I can make a decal?

 

0023846

 

Thanks in advance;

Steve

I am sorry I cannot help you with this badge. Though I doubt it to have anything to do with the Gaulois. I'll do some research and keep you informed.

However, you may find in the site below interesting things and particularly how to help you design customized markings at the bottom of the Menu in the Documents section : marquages dérives or Tail Markings where you can find all types of used fonts on zips.

 

http://mh-1521.fr/index.php?part=37

 

Le's keep in touch.

 

Cheers.

AV O

[fightersweep]

Hi AV O;

 

Thank you for the reply. The website sounds very interesting! I shall have a loot at it now. I will keep you posted on my progress.

 

Best regards;

Steve

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[fightersweep]

Thanks Andy! That's a great looking website. I think I have an hour or two's worth of browsing to do this evening!

 

Best regards;

Steve

[PaulT 876]

Hi Steve

The Insig is based  on the insig from GE 314 Ecole de Chasse  there Liaison Flt in 1974 based at Tours the a/c had the codes 314-DB a/c ser 015 and 314 - DA a/c ser 175.

The insig was non officiel  thats why note on the list there are photos of these a/c.

Its taken a while to track down due to the a/c photo you have has the code 31- if had 314 would have gone to GE 314 stright away as a known code.

Hope this helps

Paul

Edited June 29, 2019 by PaulT 876

[CT7567]

Paul's solved the mystery!  With the EC 314 unit info I did a quick search and found the link below which shows the badge on a Broussard in a vintage image (2nd photo on page):

 

https://www.traditions-air.fr/unit/photo/ecole31400.htm

 

Auto-translation of the caption:

"Note that Device # 15 (314-DB) in the foreground has the "Pirate" badge on the joint. (source: brochure "Christian Martell" Ecole de Chasse 00/314 - 1986 - © Armee de l'Air - page 81)"

 

I suspect "pirate" is used here in the adjectival sense to describe the unofficial nature of the marking (e.g. "pirate radio"), and stand by the original ID of the character as a Gallic warrior.

 

[PaulT 876]

Hi

The GE 314 ingsig had yellow back ground unlike the blue on the restored a/c, colour photos in the books i have on GE 314.

Paul

[RidgeRunner]

On 6/29/2019 at 1:38 PM, CT7567 said:

Paul's solved the mystery!  With the EC 314 unit info I did a quick search and found the link below which shows the badge on a Broussard in a vintage image (2nd photo on page):

 

https://www.traditions-air.fr/unit/photo/ecole31400.htm

 

Auto-translation of the caption:

"Note that Device # 15 (314-DB) in the foreground has the "Pirate" badge on the joint. (source: brochure "Christian Martell" Ecole de Chasse 00/314 - 1986 - © Armee de l'Air - page 81)"

 

I suspect "pirate" is used here in the adjectival sense to describe the unofficial nature of the marking (e.g. "pirate radio"), and stand by the original ID of the character as a Gallic warrior.

 

Ah... Tours in the days of the T-33 :). I never got there to see them but I wanted to!!!

 

Martin

 

[fightersweep]

HI all;

 

Many thanks for the replies and the identification of the badge. Many apologies for not responding sooner, but I hadn't checked into the thread recently and missed the replies. That's very helpful indeed. All I need now (somehow) is to find an image good enough to produce a decal from!

 

Thank you again everyone. You help was greatly appreciated.

 

Steve