C-97C Stratofreighter Colours - Korean War

[Mike N]

I've read that the C-97C Stratofreighter was used in the Korean War for medical evacuation, but I have been unable to find any reference photos claiming to show the aircraft in that conflict. The Academy kit offers a C variant scheme for the Military Air Transport Service for serial 50-700 but with no further details. I've managed to find two images of this airframe:

 

 

 

Both look to be in the same scheme, but I have no idea if it's correct for the Korean War era. The images appear to show the nose and a band forward of the tailplane painted in one colour, and the fin (and entire tail?) aft of this band in another colour. The Academy instructions don't indicate the latter colour being present, just showing natural metal as per the rest of the airframe. Furthermore, Academy states the band and nose are in fluorescent orange, which is plausible from the above images, but I haven't seen that colour on any other Korean War aircraft. Based on colour images of B-50s of the time, my guess is the fin is Arctic Red.

 

Does anyone know if the above images do show a Korean War scheme? If not, what would be correct? If the images are from that conflict, what are the nose and band colours?

 

Thoughts welcome!

 

Mike

[RidgeRunner]

I’m not an expert but the photos are the same machine and, it seems, on the same sortie. To me it looks much later, evidenced by the ‘0-‘ prefix to the serial. They had a four-digit serial during the Korean conflict.

 

Martin

[Giorgio N]

MATS markings in the Korean War timeframe were a bit more elaborate, see this picture taken in late 1949:

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_C-97_Stratofreighter#/media/File%3AC-97_stratofreighter_041116-F-9999R-002.jpg

 

I have a colour picture of a C-97A in Japan in 1953 that adds to these markings some more colour, as shown in this model of the same aircraft (although I'm not 100% sure about the white roof):

http://tedtaylor.hobbyvista.com/22-c-97a/page-22.html

 

The aircraft used in support of the Korean War would have used one of these schemes

 

 

[Sabrejet]

It's possible that Hickam-based C-97s performed medevac/casevac during the war; C-97A 48-412 of 49th Transport Sqn is shown at Haneda (Tokyo) from July 1952 to February 1953 and 48-415 of 1503rd Transport Wg also at Haneda from January to February 1951 for example. However the only transports I've actually seen photos of in Korea during this period were C-47, C-54, C-121 and C-124. It does seem likely however.

Edited October 24, 2021 by Sabrejet

[BritJet]

Polish text but there is a colour profile of 50-700 - https://combatace.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=139314

 

Steve

[Sabrejet]

OK, three C-97Cs shown at Haneda, which may mean they were 'Korean' aircraft:

 

50-693 1266th Air Transport Sqn Hickam 20Mar51-07Aug51 (1503rd ABGp Haneda 13-15Apr51)

50-694 1266th Air Transport Sqn Hickam 10Apr51-16Aug51 (1503rd ABGp Haneda 28May51)

50-695 1256th Air Transport Sqn Kelly 18Apr51-24Aug51 (1503rd ABGp Haneda 21-23Jun51)

 

50-700 not showing. As mentioned above, any photos or renderings of 50-700 with the tail number prefixed with a zero ("0-0700" or "0-00700") show that the scheme dates from post-1960. The extra zero represents a 10-year old a/c and two zeros (mainly carried by C-47s and now redundant) twenty years.

Edited October 25, 2021 by Sabrejet

[Mike N]

Thanks for the replies. The information on the numbering system is new to me, so I've learned something else too.

 

I'm still a little way off putting final colours on, so I have more time in case anyone comes up with new info!

 

Thanks again,

 

Mike 

[sloegin57]

A couple of shots from my archives which may help.  As far as I am aware, MATS at the time of the Korean War, was divided into Divisions and its possible that only the Pacific Division was involved in supporting the war.

 

 

Interesting inscription under wing - "MATS" instead of the usual USAF

 

A crop of the middle photo showing the "MATS" inscription a bit clearer.  Interesting to speculate as to whether 0692 had the same on the

right upper mainplane, also a possible reason for the inscription being that MATS flights were flown by both USAF and USN crews. As to

the colours.  I will leave that to others more knowledgable as it is way outside my field. 

 

HTH

 

Dennis

[Sabrejet]

I think the upper scheme should be a good starting point. Red/dayglo Arctic conspicuity markings likely to be applied only to Atlantic Division a/c. Nice photos by the way!

[Mike N]

Nice photos indeed! I agree the top photo feels like the most likely scheme, just with Pacific Division markings. Still, Arctic Red would've looked nice on the model 

 

Mike 

[pigsty]

On 10/25/2021 at 7:54 PM, Mike N said:

The information on the numbering system is new to me, so I've learned something else too

One of the many joys of this site ...

 

The "0-" prefix is often misread as "O for Obsolete" but it was definitely a numeral.  It was used to show the airframe was over ten years old, and they did that because putting only four or five digits of the serial number on the tail meant you could confuse 51-0700 with 61-0070, as they'd both be 0700 or 10700.  You might think, if they put the whole serial on the tail - and something like a Stratofreighter certainly had room - that wouldn't have been a problem.  Well, so did the USAF ... although it took about twenty years for the penny to drop.  Nowadays you usually see the whole serial, often like ₀₁0010.

[Sabrejet]

Further to the above, you do see the full s/n presented with the '0', except that, for example '117328' might mean FY51 or FY61, the first digit being the '1' of 1951, 1961 etc. All OK from 1951 thru 1960 or so because obviously the '1961' s/n wouldn't have existed. So that's the reason for the prefixed '0-'. So as of 1962, '0-117328' would indicate a 1951FY aircraft and ''117328' would represent 1961FY. Moving forward to 1972, '00-117328' would indicate 1951, '0-117328' would indicate 1961 and '117328; would be 1971 Fiscal Year. Since most aircraft in that time period didn't make it to 20 years old, it's most commonly seen on C-47s, which were in the USAF inventory into the 1970s at least.

 

On a similar topic, if an aircraft wore a buzz number which had a 'last three' repeated within the same type, the earliest aircraft would gain a letter 'A', the later a 'B' etc. This is why you sometimes see F-84s with 'FS-xxx-A' and 'FS-xxx-B' buzz numbers etc. Rare to see it on F-86s because most variants had unique 'last three' digit combinations.

[Владимир Мишонин]

On 24/10/2021 at 12:17, Mike N said:

I've read that the C-97C Stratofreighter was used in the Korean War for medical evacuation, but I have been unable to find any reference photos claiming to show the aircraft in that conflict. The Academy kit offers a C variant scheme for the Military Air Transport Service for serial 50-700 but with no further details. I've managed to find two images of this airframe:

 

 

 

Both look to be in the same scheme, but I have no idea if it's correct for the Korean War era. The images appear to show the nose and a band forward of the tailplane painted in one colour, and the fin (and entire tail?) aft of this band in another colour. The Academy instructions don't indicate the latter colour being present, just showing natural metal as per the rest of the airframe. Furthermore, Academy states the band and nose are in fluorescent orange, which is plausible from the above images, but I haven't seen that colour on any other Korean War aircraft. Based on colour images of B-50s of the time, my guess is the fin is Arctic Red.

 

Does anyone know if the above images do show a Korean War scheme? If not, what would be correct? If the images are from that conflict, what are the nose and band colours?

 

Thoughts welcome!

 

Mike

Hi, Mike.  Robert Sullivan writes that, this photo is from 1962. It is incorrect to associate Academy decals part with the Korean War. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/my_public_domain_photos/9324627908/in/photolist-fcZa1G-Kg4pCQ/

 

[Giorgio N]

6 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

I think the upper scheme should be a good starting point. Red/dayglo Arctic conspicuity markings likely to be applied only to Atlantic Division a/c. Nice photos by the way!

 

Not a C but an A, in any case S/N 48-402 of Pacific Division was photographed at Itazuke AB in 1953 wearing conspicuity markings, although the red did not extend above the band carrying the division name. The same pictures appears in both Nicholas Williams' "Aircraft of the US MATS" and David Menard's "USAF Plus Fifteen".

A bit off topic but I have to say that both books are a great source of inspiration for modellers