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I wondered about that, I assume it was so they would not be mistaken and shot down by friendly fire.I know as a general rule the Luftwaffe painted the undersides of captured aircraft yellow.
I remember that the US stopped using the Yellow outer ring, assume in favor of good old red white and blue. And to avoid being mistaken as well. Just seems like lots of German aircraft featured prominent yellow in their color schemes and always wondered. Was yellow perhaps one of the national colors of Germany during the war?Yellow was used because it has a higher visibility for ID than most other colors. Although in the MTO, the Germans and Italians both used white for the most part while the U.S. used a yellow band on the outside of the roundel.
Then again, the British and the Japanese also used yellow ID markings on their aircraft.
Thats cool to know! Especially when trying to build a period correct model.I have Aug. 18th, '40 as the first date that massed formations carried the yellow rudder
Up through 6 May 1942, the US (all branches) roundel was the familiar blue field, white star and red center.I remember that the US stopped using the Yellow outer ring, assume in favor of good old red white and blue. And to avoid being mistaken as well. Just seems like lots of German aircraft featured prominent yellow in their color schemes and always wondered. Was yellow perhaps one of the national colors of Germany during the war?
From the outbreak of the war identification was a problem, the war was only three days old when the Battle of Barking Creek happened.Was there a lot of 'friendly fire' incidents in the air war that necessitated this being visible need? Also why the extensive use of camo at all if the goal was to remain visible? Seems to me the yellow bands would be visible from planes in the air while the others were on the ground as well as in the air. It always seemed a little odd to me that various air forces including ours would go with extensive camo efforts only to blazon rondels and other markings in striking primary colors all over them
I always thought it was odd that they go through the expense and time of painting an aircraft camouflage, then add a large area of yellow to make is visible.