Spitfire MkIa N3200 Flies Again! (1 Viewer)

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Ok, sorry if this is a dumb question, but why is the underside of the port wing black, and the underside of teh starbord painted properly? BUT, beautiful aircraft, good to see a vet that saw combat back in the air. Anyone have the particular combat report for this encounter?

Frag
 
It changed from silver (or white) undersides with black port wing underside, to overall 'Sky' undersides on 6th June 1940, and was re-introduced on November 27th 1940, retaining the 'Sky', but with a black port wing, and 'A1' roundel. This was in turn replaced with 'Sky' overall undersides again, in April 1941.
 
Wot Airframes and Alex said. Painting the port underwing black was a recognition feature for RAF fighter aircraft. Initially, the port underwing was black while the starboard underwing was white, all other underside areas were aluminium (dope or paint). Roundels were later added under the wings. The next change was to paint the entire underside Sky with no roundels. Then the roundels were added again, followed by a return of the black port underwing (with the rest in Sky) in late 1940. I think that latter scheme was pretty short lived, overall Sky undersides being re-introduced until the advent of the Day Fighter Scheme later in 1941. There were exceptions (eg the local marking of Buffalos in the Far East) but the above precis is (roughly) what was supposed to happen...not that all the changes were applied uniformly!
 
Ok, sorry if this is a dumb question, but why is the underside of the port wing black, and the underside of teh starbord painted properly? BUT, beautiful aircraft, good to see a vet that saw combat back in the air. Anyone have the particular combat report for this encounter?

Frag

1 The spitfire was a day/ night fighter
2 Dowding was a keen chess player and loved the flying chess board formation.
 
Another beautiful example put back where she belongs,, in the skies. And the bar continues to be raised in regards to the quality of each progressive restoration, its going to be tough to beat the last two,,,
 

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