I mean some planes of USA had red lines around the markings wat did that mean in the ww2 back then.Like that picture of that p-51 above the star are blue normal wat did red lines around stars mean on planes that flew back then.
But weren't they introduced in 1943? when U.S. planes were starting to enter opperations in Europe. I think the Red outlines were there as a more distinguishing marking feature to allow the markings to be more pronounced against the Olive drab and neutral gray colourschemes used at the time. Once Air superiority was established and planes were often polished metal the Red edging was rescinded.
Aircraft were used in an in-flight test at Eglin Field, Florida on June 18, 1943 to verify the increased visibility of the proposed design. On June 29, 1943, the second major WWII design change was adopted. A white rectangle or bar was added on each side of the blue circle and a red border surrounding the entire insigne. While the new design was estimated to be 60 percent more recognizable, the use of the red border was short lived. The final WWII national insigne was adopted on August 14, 1943, this change eliminated red from the national insigne until after WWII. The red border was replaced with one of blue
The red didn't last long on all Allied aircraft. It was eliminated as soon as Japan became the enemy of the US Coalition. The red was eliminated to avoid confusion with the Japanese red circle insignia in IFF (identification Friend or Foe)
I seen pictures of planes flying late in the war with red usa lines around stars markings.I would post a picture of wat i mean but i dont know how.All look at profiles at [aviation illustrator]site look at some of the profiles of ww2 planes there.you will wat i mean about the red.Theres defalt markings on planes of il-2 1946 pacific planes wat i mean its on the f6f-3 hellcat & f4u-a red.why did usa use red
This message has been edited. Last edited by: hsj41,
Two major sets of markings were used by American aircraft in WWII and of that there are two variations for each of those.
The first was the blue circle with white star in the middle. In 1940 and 1941 and moving into early 1942 that marking included a red dot in the middle of the star.
Example:
Later the red dot was removed because AAA gunners were too easily confusing the red dot for Japanese aircraft.
Example:
Then in early 1943 they started using the "stars 'n bars" marking scheme with the blue circle and white star remaining plus blue bars on the sides.
Example:
Now originally those markings were painted with a red outline (completing the red white and blue of the American flag).
But the red was still being confused by gunners so it was painted over in blue and thats how the marking was painted for the rest of the war (to my knowledge).
So the red outline was not used late in the war...it was only for a few months in 1943. Someone I'm sure has the exact dates of when orders came in to make all of these changes.
