Whilst the F-4 had various shades of Barley Grey, that pre-dated the FunBus grey by 16 years....

Never heard anyone call it Barley Grey - and we hated the original grey withthe pansy 'blue vein' and white lettering scheme as applied to ZA149! I picked it up in July 1994 from Boscombe after 'les Girls' had brought it back from its heat soaking trials - a thinly disguised holiday in Lost Wages for them, we thought.

It was then found to be still full of boffin wiring which hadn't been added to the weight and balance schedule, so didn't fly again for a while until Boscombe sorted out their paperwork.

And yes, I did christen it 'John Major grey' at the time!

Marshall's Cockup
 

Its a C1K XR 808

Why Marshall's cockup?

Pray tell......

Beagle dear boy...

Markings are optional for flight....I can assure you the birds fly nicely without marking one on them. Don't ask when, where, or why we did that.....just assume it was in someplace we were not at....doing things we did not do.

;)

I can well believe that Uncle Spam flew (and still flies) unmarked a/c in clear contravention of International Law.....whilst roaming the world as they please killing whoever it suits them to 'in defense of freedom, God, Mom, apple pie and the American way'?

Nearly, vicky, it's 807, and I left it at Filton on 26th, for its proper paint job...oh no, wait, it's getting kicked out after 2 weeks to make way for a Virgin jet...bugger. Lowest bidder strikes again!:\

Beagle....do you still believe in the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, and the good will of all mankind? Surely, you cannot be so naive as to believe flying without markings...or false markings makes a bit of difference in the grand scheme of things?

I am sure the Thundering Herds run around in uniform all the time....operational requirements dictate the style and mode of dress, uniform, badges, markings, and flags flown by military units doing operational taskings.

The Oppos do not wear uniforms, badges of rank, unit crests.....and certainly do not give one bit concern to the legalities of war as set forth by the Geneva Accords.

So why would you allow yourself to get your knickers in a twist over unmarked aircraft flying around? Could it be if they cannot get the markings on....they might use improper RT procedures?

You reckon all the space vehicles in the sky are for scientific purposes....including the ones billed as being scientific in nature? Wonder what kinds of pic's the Hubbell sent back when not looking away from Earth? That certainly did not have military markings on it.

I believe the reason for the jet colour was to do with a cock up with the two different coats of paint and a bit too much "metal" in one of them causing a reaction and the resulting colour. As for why its not being sorted out as yet, the contracter only rents marshals hanger space and when its time was up its time was up, and had to go. Who is going to pay for this fiasco? still ongoing.

Pretty blurry ones, I should imagine. Hubble's groundspeed is about 7 km/s, the shortest exposure time of any HST instrument is 0.1s, and the flywheels it uses to rotate would take forever to make it turn fast enough to keep one bit of the surface in sight :-)