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1949 National Air Races


David M

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Does anyone out there in BM land know what colours were used for the bands applied to almost all the entrants in the British 1949 National races organized by the RAC?

Some appear to have single colours (eg the Spitfires), others had two colours (eg the light a/c).

Google seems to think that the American Nationals were the only event that year.

However, I assume it was a condition of entry and that here is probably a record somewhere....

 

TIA

David in Oz

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I don't have any direct information relating to the colour of the bands, but I did find more details came up by searching for Kings Cup 1949 air races at Birmingham. Tis search brought up YouTube film of the event and surprisingly a die cast model of the DH Hornet with the bands ! So hopefully these search terms may help you

 

https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/oxford-diecast-od72hor005.html

 

 

Bob

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Pretty sure I've got a list of the entrants and their colours but I'm away from home this week. Unless anyone else comes up with what you need I'll have a look for you next weekend.

 

Steve

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Here's the list of 1949 King's Cup entrants with colours from Flight, 28th July 1949.

Not exactly what you asked for but if nothing else comes to light it might be useful.

 

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Edited by Zephyr
Clarified my original comment
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Malc, as far as I can tell the Flight archive is no longer available.

In 2021 they were still promising to get it back up but so far it hasn't happened.

Results from the RAC and King's Cup races would have been published but I don't have those pages unfortunately.

 

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Fabulous, many thanks Zephyr, exactly what I was after.

Was looking for some Proctor schemes and now fancy G-AIHD on the basis that overall pale blue with orange and violet bands will offend many sensibilities...including my own.

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Some famous names in there too - Lettice Curtis, Ron Paine, C. Nepean Bishop, Peter Townshend, Jim Mollison, John Cunningham, Neville Duke and John Derry to name just the more obvious.

 

Dave

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Flight also published a short article (July 21st 1949, p75) on the background and colours to be carried. It said in part:

"It is typical of the extremely thorough organisation of the Races that the eleven colours are explicitly specified by their numbers in the British Standards Institution scale No. 381C, 1948.

Competitors are advised to use paint specially made for such purposes by the well-known aircraft-finishes manufacturers; it can be easily removed after the race without damaging the finish beneath."

Sadly Flight then fail to note the numbers and their list uses generic names for the colours as listed in Zephyr's post. Their list of colours is:

 

Red

Black

Violet

Yellow

Green

Light Green

Orange

White

Blue

Dark Brown

Brown

 

My earliest copy of BS 381C is dated 1964 and has lots of Blues, Greens, Yellows, Reds and Browns and even has a couple of Oranges and Violets.

For example there are nineteen greens identified by number and by name ("No 217 Sea Green, No 280 Verdigris Green, etc, etc).

I am guessing that the colours are identified similarly in the 1948 edition, but hoping that it may have used the more generic names given in the list.

 

If anyone has a copy of BS 381 1948 and could take a look to see if there are any obvious colours to match the list it would be much appreciated.

Failing that I guess I will just take a punt and use something that looks 'right' from the 1964 edition's range.

 

TIA,

David in Oz

 

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On 9/10/2022 at 10:16 AM, David M said:

Fabulous, many thanks Zephyr, exactly what I was after.

Was looking for some Proctor schemes and now fancy G-AIHD on the basis that overall pale blue with orange and violet bands will offend many sensibilities...including my own.

🤣 There's a reason for every subject we choose and that's as good a reason as any!

 

So far I haven't come up with a single photo showing the race colours on any of those aircraft.

Apart from the excellent film clip linked above, the best chance is probably for someone to find the race reports from Flight, which usually featured a small selection of photos of the competitors.

 

 

Edited by Zephyr
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Hi Zephyr,

                 British Racing and Record-Breaking Aircraft by Peter Lewis ( my copy was published by Putnam) has b&w photos of quite a few of them but I'm not sure it would be worth buying for just the '49 races only. Once a specific aircraft is chosen it's often possible to find a number of pictures by googling the make followed by the registration letters.

 

Dave 

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Peter Lewis's book also frequently notes the overall and trim colours for the entrants he mentions that helpfully supplement the Flight list.

There are even a few that have been kitted with their 1949 NAR colours.

The ones I have found so far include:

Miles Gemini (1/72 Croco Models)

Benes Mraz BE550 Bibi (1/72 Kora Wings)

Sea Fury (1/48 AMG with bands but with incorrect serial?)

Balliol (1/72 Special Hobby)

There may be more and there is also the Oxford Diecast DH Hornet mentioned above

 

A surprising number of the entrant types have been produced as kits. According to Scalemates (not always the most reliable) he only ones that haven't been done in recent memory seem to be:

Miles Mercury

Parnall Heck

Blackburn B2

GAL Cygnet

Globe Swift

Goodyear GA2 Duck

All the rest have been available in one form or another.

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  • 11 months later...
On 10/09/2022 at 01:16, David M said:

Was looking for some Proctor schemes and now fancy G-AIHD on the basis that overall pale blue with orange and violet bands will offend many sensibilities...including my own.

Did the Proctor ever get built?

 

Cheers,

Mark

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