1980s/90s RAF Conspicuity Trials

[martin garrett]

Hello All,

I have heard that in the late 1990's a number of RAF aircraft had their fins painted for High Conspicuity Trials. Can anyone tell me a bit more about the trails and which aircraft where involved.

Information on the www is sparse. I have read in a number of places that there was a Tornado with a red fin one with a white fin along with a white finned Harrier.

Was this it or was there any other specially painted aircraft involved. Can anyone furnish me with more information including pictures please?

Regards

[Cows getting bigger]

I remember elements of the RAFG Harrier GR3 fleet getting a quick paint job. Red and white ring a bell and it truly looked as if some poor chap had been tasked with painting the tails with a 4 inch brush.

4 Sqn then came up with their black/yellow/red lightning bolt which was far more professional and became the standard for the sqn.

A few links to photos

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1461253/etuo/XV758V_Nienaber_tb.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1461253/etuo/XV758V_Zetsche.jpg

http://www.sg-etuo.de/bilder/XV760K_RMueller.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1461253/etuo/XV760K_XV804D_Hoelscher_tb.jpg

[Wander00]

Could do with a conspicuity trial now to find the Royal Air Force-


I'll get my coat

[Tiger_mate]

Check out:
Brize Norton photocall (http://mwindridge.com/Airshow_1990/Brize_Norton_1990/brize_norton_1990.html)
for some examples.

[martin garrett]

Thanks for the info already given guys.

Was the Tornado in the link sent part of hte trials or just a special scheme that appeared at the same time ?

[Tiger_mate]

There were some complete aircraft that went through various colour schemes. The Wessex of 72 Sqn comes to mind with a sky blue one, an overall black one and various shades of camouflage. The two tone green in lieu of green and grey was the outcome.

That red and white training aircraft were painted black was the decision based on information provided by a psychologist. Never quite agreed with that one and the system must also have been unimpressed which is why DHFS and Police helicopters have large yellow elements in the colour scheme.

Air Defence grey (Matt) in lieu of bare metal makes sense but soon changes with reverse thrust and groundcrew boots making the airframe a mess. Matt paint is also short lived compared to gloss. Even the Lightning went through phases: Bare metal > camouflage grey/green > Two tone grey single tone grey. The short lived phase of adorning squadron colours on the tail was an exploitation of formal recognition that the air to air collisions that had occured were inevitable. The most dramatic was the two Harrier GR3 attacking Otterburn from differing direction in theory separated by a few seconds but in reality (and sadly) proving a fatal mistake when they hit each other in a most dramatic fashion.

High Intensity Strobe lighting has probably contributed more to Flight Safety then any colour scheme, and an adoption of the american green strips that are bound to have a name, but I do not know it.

[Cows getting bigger]

Martin, I've added some links to my first post.

TM, Flt Lt Dave Sunderland & Lt John Carver USN at Otterburn (1987).

ISTR that during the 80s there were a significant number of close calls and a notable number of mid-airs. Others that spring to mind are the T4/Starfighter collision near Osnabruck (1985?) and the RAF Tornado that managed to run into 8 Alpha Jets near Wittmundhafen only managing to miss 6 of them (1989).

[ShyTorque]

I recall the Buccaneer / Hunter very close shave in Wales (in 1977 I think, I was helping to run the ops desk at the Bucc. OCU at Honington at the time). The Bucc pilot pulled 13G and the aircraft broke (tail came off, IIRC). The crew successfuly ejected and landed in Lake Bala.

[Shaft109]

Wasn't there once an idea to fit the moving control surfaces of an aircraft with a mirrored finish vinyl wrap? The idea being the controls surfaces are constantly being moved and causing glinting.

I'm sure there was a trial but might have been on civvy gliders.

[Finnpog]

My father was the MO at RAF Credenhill when the Bala thing happened. I remember him telling us on the day that a large search party had been formed and dispatched.

IIRC, both crews saw the other at about the same time, and as butch as the Bucc was, it just wasn't about to do what was asked.

[Daysleeper]

That red and white training aircraft were painted black was the decision based on information provided by a psychologist. Never quite agreed with that one and the system must also have been unimpressed which is why DHFS and Police helicopters have large yellow elements in the colour scheme.

Er both those designs came from the same team. Black providing the best contrast against the sky unless one happens to be stationary over a forest (and being looked down upon) so yellow uppers were added for rotary.

Studies by the FAA and USAF showed that HISLS are ineffective in good daylight unless you can get over 100,000 candela. (most aircraft ones are about 400 !). A strobe of about 36,000 may help on very dull days. Obviously at night their great...very very high intensity headlights may help low level (easier to get high contrast against a hill) and were due for fitting to everything pointy but the funding never materialised and the risk changed at the end of the cold war.

The mirrored control surfaces trial was done using RAF gliders (@ syerston I think), work in a similar way has recommenced funded by the CAA, again using RAF gliders.

Ultimately electronic conspicuity is the only solution to the fallibility of the human powered see-and-avoid. Unfortunately there seems to be no silver bullet.

[60024]

It was a bit disconcerting to fly on a hazy day in battle formation with a Tornado with a white fin as it looked as if there was no fin! Very conspicuous!

[HaveQuick2]

XV Sqn flew a red-finned Tornado from Laarbruch as part of these trials, ZA446 according to the link below.

http://www.ukserials.com/images/ukimages/za446.jpg

[stickmonkeytamer]

I've got an air to air photo of a F3 Tornado with bright red droptanks- I'll try and scan it to upload when I can, if anyone is interested. Does anyone know if that was part of the same trial? I never did find out. I think that it was in the late 1990s? Maybe it was so that the Nav could confirm whether they had missed the school after punching them off??

SMT

[Wwyvern]

In the early 70s, RAF Wessex in Northern Ireland still had red, white and blue roundels and tail flashes, and crews still wore white bonedomes and cream cape leather gloves. A lot of our time was spent in forward landing sites, and it was easy to feel uncomfortable climbing out of or into the aircraft at these locations.

Locally, we painted the white parts of the roundels and tail flashes black, but couldn't get MOD approval to change the bonedomes and gloves. The BASO in Lurgan (?) sent us a bucket of land rover paint, and we applied it to our bonedomes.

During this period, we examined our aircraft camouflage to see if there was a better combination. Some old boffin in MOD told us that the undersides of bombers in WW2 were painted in gloss black so that if searchlights illuminated the aircraft, the light would be diffused and make the aircraft less distinct.

[Finningley Boy]

I seem to remember Tornados in Germany having their fins painted one colour or another, I understand, for some kind of recognition exercise. There were straight forward Green, White, Black, Red and whatever else. Only on a few, it was around 1988/89?

FB:)

[MG]

I must look at my logbook but I think I flew the 31 Sqn GR1 into Brize for those photocall pics. The paint scheme had nothing to do with conspicuity and everything to do with wanting to turn stomachs!!

[Background Noise]

I have heard that in the late 1990's a number of RAF aircraft had their fins painted for High Conspicuity Trials.

A bit earlier I think. Some info here: http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/447709-raf-4fts-hawk-colour-scheme-change-date.html

I seem to remember Tornados with various fin colours and looking at a line of them (at Valley?). Everyone expected light/bright colours to be best but all made a similar comment about the one with the white fin - at first glance it looked like it didn't have a fin at all! More structured tests were flown and actually matt black was deemed to be the best in most circumstances, but more difficult to maintain than gloss.

[Mach Two]

I think matt black also created something of a heating problem.

[BEagle]

Back in the late 1970s, I was involved in a conspicuity trial for the Vulcan. This involved charging around at low level whilst another aircraft took photos:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/Consp_1.jpg

This was fine for the Goose Bay area, but the white underside was a bit of a giveaway on Red Flag, so the later wraparound grey/green finish eventually became standard.

Many years later, to make the Brize Flying Club aircraft more conspicuous, I devised a 'flag blue and solar gold' scheme which, according to the air-traffickers, made the aircraft a lot easier to see against the sky:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/Consp_2.jpg

The budget back then stretched to one aircraft re-paint per annum - and very smart they looked too! The last time we were able to put that 4-ship in the air was 15 Jul 2005 as part of a 'prizewinners' event for RIAT helpers organised by Brize ATC. Just as I was climbing in to lead the herd back from Fairford, I saw the infamous TypHoon near-disaster. "I don't think WE need to be quite THAT spectacular!", I mentioned to my passenger....:\

[SilsoeSid]

Seems silly to go to all that trouble, then splat 2 dirty great roundels on the wings :rolleyes:

[Madbob]

SS - I agree, particularly as the RAF was the only ever operator of the Vulcan......and it would be virtually impossible to mis-identify one!

MB

[Courtney Mil]

Actually, that picture looks really effective as a photograph with no motion, but see that scheme in similar situations and the movement of the aircraft with a pretty high contrast paint scheme doesn't fade away quite as much.

Sorry, didn't mean to sound dispariging. It is still a great photo.

[WE992]

I seem to remember that there was an all white and an all black C-130 at Lyneham for a while.

[Four Types]

I was at a well known Air to Air range west of Offa's Dyke in late 90s. The chaps up there took part by painting the Jindivik black (matt not gloss though). We recorded the 'Tally' range on each presentation. The results were inconclusive actually. Before that I was on F4Js at Stalag Watt, they had black tails and we were always picked out first in a multi mix melee...they spotted the black fin from miles away...even with smoke free engines. Still shot 'em up though! Happy days. Once a Tiger...:ok:

[angelorange]

http://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/Data/glider-conspicuity-study.pdf

Dr Tony Head has recently carried out further trials at RAF Syerston.

Also a good article on see and avoid ( DG-Flugzeugbau.de : Seeing has to be Learned (http://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/sehen-e.html) ) states:


"As a consequence of a collision between a Tornado GR1 and a Jetranger helicopter in June 1993 the British Ministry of Defence commissioned a report from DERA (Centre of Defence Analysis). The requirement was to carry out a survey on the effectiveness of the principle of “see and avoid” and to evaluate various measures to increase the effectiveness of this technique.
One of the main findings of the report, published in April 1997, is the fact that lookout is 95-99 % effective in avoiding a mid-air collision and therefore the most effective method.
The institute in Farnborough, UK, calculated a yearly collision rate of 0.118 between military jet aircraft, based on 1000 hours.
The collision rate between military jet aircraft and civil aircraft is 0.007.
Another result of the survey was that measures like changing the aircraft's colour scheme, fitting the aircraft with high intensity strobe lights (HILS), forward facing lights and collision warning systems could improve the effectiveness of “see and avoid” significantly. Painting Hawk and Tucano aircraft for example could reduce the risk of a collision among these aircraft types by 27 %. Fitting Hawk and Tucano aircraft with forward facing lights could reduce the risk by up to 75 %.
High intensity strobe lights on all military aircraft would reduce the yearly collision rate by 15 % according to the report. A significantly reduced collision rate (approx. 66 %) could be achieved by integrating an electric collision warning system. Of course the implementation of the above features in civil aircraft, especially gliders, microlights and hang gliders would significantly reduce the risk of collision, but there seem to be insurmountable obstacles that prevent the technical and financial realization and the acceptance of technical alterations.
The RAF has already started a programme to modify all Hawk and Tucano aircraft. This modification will include a black paint scheme and forward facing lights. In addition to that the RAF plans to equip all military aircraft with a high-intensity strobe light. Within the next 3 years all military jet aircraft in the RAF will be fitted with a passive electronic collision warning (an external container similar to a flight profile recorder). The Airforce started fitting transport and special purpose aircraft with an airborne collision avoidance system (ACAS) for test purposes in 1999. Serial fitting of the system is supposed to start in 2000/2001. ACAS is not designed for the tactical deployment of fighter aircraft, and indeed at present it does not appear to be suitable for this purpose. A limited number of flight profile recorders (FPR) have been acquired as outer ballast for the flight mission assessment in fighter aircraft."

[jamesdevice]

Presumably that was commissioned after the Farleton Fell collision. If I remember correctly the Jet Ranger was on a pipeline inspection, at low speed and the Tornado flew into it from behind and cut the tail off. No amount of making the Tornado more visible would have stopped the incident - what was needed was a way for the Tornado to identify the presence of the helicopter at low level

report at http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/2-1994%20ZG%20754%20and%20G-BHYW%20Append.pdf

[Hueymeister]

I flew the Matt black, the duck-egg blue and the grey Wessii in NI. The black one was rather gucci, but a piece of wee-wee to see at night, the blue just looked gay and the grey one acted like a ginormous mirror in the orange sodium glow of any village/town. Anyone got any piccies?

[jamesdevice]

Wessex camouflage trials at Culdrose
shame the film is in black & white
HELICOPTER CAMOUFLAGE - British Pathe (http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=73209)

[martin garrett]

Some really interesting information and photographs. Many thanks for sharing the information.