Three of the Best - A flight of Spitfires
A stirring sight and sound. Two Spitfires Mk 1a, flying with a Spitfire Mk Vc (leftmost in the picture). The Spitfire Mk V was introduced late in 1940, after the Battle of Britain, and was essentially a Mk 1 with a more powerful RR Merlin engine. The 'a' and 'c' designations indicate the different armament that could be carried in the wings.
Improved radios had also been designed by then, too, and a slightly different aerial mast design, without a wire leading to the fin, can be seen on the Mk V.
Topside camouflage was changed from using 'Dark Earth' to 'Ocean Grey' in mid 1941. A light band around the rear fuselage and yellow stripes on the wing leading edges were introduced to aid visual 'friend or foe' identification.
If you are really sharp-eyed, you will see that the camouflage pattern on the nearer aircraft is a mirror image of that on the other two. Initially, odd and even serial numbered fighter aircraft had mirrored camouflage patterns. Quite why this was thought to be a good idea is lost in the mists of time, but apparently different factories applied the A & B schemes differently, so at the time the Ocean Grey was introduced, it was decided to use only the 'A' pattern camouflage from then on.
Three of the Best - A flight of Spitfires
A stirring sight and sound. Two Spitfires Mk 1a, flying with a Spitfire Mk Vc (leftmost in the picture). The Spitfire Mk V was introduced late in 1940, after the Battle of Britain, and was essentially a Mk 1 with a more powerful RR Merlin engine. The 'a' and 'c' designations indicate the different armament that could be carried in the wings.
Improved radios had also been designed by then, too, and a slightly different aerial mast design, without a wire leading to the fin, can be seen on the Mk V.
Topside camouflage was changed from using 'Dark Earth' to 'Ocean Grey' in mid 1941. A light band around the rear fuselage and yellow stripes on the wing leading edges were introduced to aid visual 'friend or foe' identification.
If you are really sharp-eyed, you will see that the camouflage pattern on the nearer aircraft is a mirror image of that on the other two. Initially, odd and even serial numbered fighter aircraft had mirrored camouflage patterns. Quite why this was thought to be a good idea is lost in the mists of time, but apparently different factories applied the A & B schemes differently, so at the time the Ocean Grey was introduced, it was decided to use only the 'A' pattern camouflage from then on.