Maybe not as good as a nuts & bolts zap or those ' brass plaques ' applied to Shackletons, but;
One of our ( Dunsfold ) development Sea Harriers - XZ450, first to fly in August 1978 by John Farley, and first aircraft shot down by Argentinian AAA ( with the loss of Lt. Nick Taylor ) was nominally with 899 Squadron with their rather good 'fighting gauntlet' tail insignia.
When it came back from Boscombe after a trial, it bore the usual indestructible dayglo orange zap on the tail, a perfect recreation of the 899 gauntlet, but with middle finger raised !
Whoever is / was responsible for the Boscombe zaps, I salute you; if a photographic record was kept, there's a book waiting to be published I should think.
One other 'zap' episode which is I think worth mentioning - after the Falklands, Kingston produced a sticker with a B&W image from the war of a Sea Harrier recovering to a carrier deck, launcher rails empty, with the caption " Actions Prove Louder Than Words ".
By a strange coincidence at the next Farnborough show the Mirage and Sea Harrier were facing each other when parked, giving tabloid photographers a field day.
Our then Chief Test Pilot Heinz Frick always had a mischievous streak, and couldn't resist it; ( of course it may not have been him ) when the Mirage taxied out to do his display and selected take-off flap, a long row of these Sea Harrier zaps appeared.
To say the French had a ballistic sense of humour failure is putting it mildly, I did hear they had an armed guard for the rest of the show.
Last edited by Double Zero; 29th Jul 2009 at 20:59.