Couple of comments if I may.

It is quite a clever design with what it has incorporated, the Flag,
the aircraft breaking from the centre (apologise of that is the
wrong term).

That picture on the front pages is way to small to do it justice
and the one's on the following page are not much better although
one of them is OK.

I think it needs some distance to see it at it's best.

I'll take that one, as the OH and I have 55 years of commissioned service between us
.
I would have left well alone. Retain National Flag emblematic, instead of artistic doodles that are probably indistinguishable beyond 100 metres.

BTW, scores on the doors so far appear to be:
Yes ... 3
No ... 5

Box on :cool:

Here's a better image ...

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...psdfd935b1.jpg

Image Credit : MOD RAF : Posted by Red 1

The design is beginning to grow on me ... probably the most pragmatic choice in terms of production cost for the entire fleet and not wanting to detract too much from an otherwise iconic colour scheme ... but that's just a personal opinion :ok:

Teeteringhead,

A sizable number of the original sandwich islanders are less than pleased with their flag, and tend to fly it upside down.

On the design - the white tick's still there, so from a distance, it'll make little difference. It is a bit heavy on the Scottishness, perhaps a ploy for September?

A genuine question, and not trying to be argumentative, I assure you.

So ... is this an in-house design, by RAFAT? Or contacted out at ££££? Or imposed from some MoD/HQ Air/Gp level?

Once upon a foggy, Sqn Cdrs used to determine what their ac looked like. As when FC ceased to exist, and the embryo STC hadn't issued regulations, so on Day 1 74 Sqn at Tengah were ALL back on the line with black fins. (OK, rush job, the leading edges peeled very quickly, but they got that sorted eventually)

MPN11 ...

The MOD RAF Press Release mentions ...

As I believe the RAF recently dispensed with the Painter and Finishers Trade ... I suspect the graphics may be Contractor fitted ?

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7fe19a66.jpg

Image Credit : MOD RAF : Posted by RAFAT

The final design is by a very talented civilian Graphics Designer called Will from the Air Media Centre at AIR and was picked by a panel from a large number of entries into an open competition that ran last year.
Will was a guest of the Red Arrows and present for the reveal at Scampton today.
The final graphics are applied by civilian contractors as the photo shows.

The design is far too fussy - although it's nice to see a couple of Gnats in the artwork.

The '50 Display Seasons' is so small that no-one will notice.

As has been said, too much of the saltire about it. The Hawk is an ugly, hunchbacked aeroplane lacking the Gnat's elegance - and that awful smoke pod is like a dog's dick. To improve the image, a simple design would have been preferable - this looks pretty dire, particularly with the stupid slanting font 'Royal Air Force' breaking the white lightning flash....

That ginger bloke at the back on the staging is little. Do they have a minimum size for the Reds?

Single word..."gopping!" :yuk:

Wow! BEagle seems to have got out of the wrong side of his bed this morning!

I wonder how long it will take Corgi to produce a model with the new paint scheme. Sales (and the price on e-bay) should show how popular the design is.

Come on now Genstabler, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If they want to live in the past, let them.

They're your team, support them!
 

Could this thread contain a more miserable, cynical, or depressing bunch of aviators? After the utterly !!!!! time the boys (and girl) have had over the last few years, why put the boot in on the 50th anniversary scheme? Sure if you paid more tax you could have a team of Typhoons coated with Myrrh. :ugh::ugh::ugh:

Why is this thread lingering? The question was posed and answered on page 1.

The 2014 "makeover" was correctly identified as a slap or two of paint on the tail.

Prepare to be underwhelmed. Prepared and wasn't disappointed.

I'm not that keen on the design either, unless you have go go gadget eyes, a lot of the detail will be missed.

Nobodys 'putting the boot in'. Saying you think a tail design could have been better is not knifing all the arrows pilots in the back!
Everythings taken to extremes these days.

I think the idea of a union flag tail is good and what they tried to do with the gnats & hawks is also a good idea. I just think what they ended up with is quite disappointing designwise.
From a distance I think you'll lose the red completely.

Fox Four, well said.

Spurtle, yes they are.

It's quite a clever design, for the reasons expressed by 500N and will catch the eye of the punters - that is, after all the purpose. Relax, everyone, it will be fine.

Edit to add: Oh, and from the photo, it looks like 8 out of nine Reds approve.

Clearly opinion is divided on the subject. Surprisingly, some like it and some don't ... Which I think is permissible under our T&C.

Any correlation between the new tail design and the tragedies the RAFAT have experienced is, however, complete and utter scribble. I apologise if that offends anyone, but this thread is about the new tail logo. My, or anyone else's, opinion of the design is simply that ... We like the design or we don't. Don't start introducing 'moral blackmail'.

"unless you have go go gadget eyes, a lot of the detail will be missed."

The design works both from afar and close up. The clearly distinct design will stand out during a fly past but when the crowds are seeing the aircraft taxi past or on a stand, the finer features of the design will be visible.

So in that way it achieves two things.

If the red was thicker, it would lose the clearly defined blue / white component
which is what will make it stand out at a distance.

The aircraft and the red lines give it some interesting detail up close
and a good representation of what the Red Arrows do, smoke and all.

It's growing on me. I'd like to see an aircraft in the sky with that tail.

Spurtle

"That's a whole 5 minutes and a new packet of felt-tips gone into the design of that then" does give a credible impression of a boot being put in. May I suggest "The Mrs and I don't like it" as a more constructive way of expressing your opinion on a sensitive matter?