Sunday, May 24, 2009

Scale Aircraft Modelling - Combat Colours 02


The Hawker Hurricane was the first of the RAF's new breed of monoplane fighters to enter service. Designed to Specification F.36/34, the prototype made its first flight on 6 November 1935 and entered service with 111 Sqn at Northolt in December 1937. By the time World War Two began in September 1939, the RAF had sixteen Hurricane squadrons fully operational with one more in the process of working up. The camouflage scheme applied to the Hurricane in September 1939 had been developed at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough during the early 1930s where it was termed the Temperate Land Scheme. This Temperate Land Scheme, as applied to monoplanes, was made up of two colours named Dark Earth and Dark Green which were applied to the upper surfaces in a disruptive pattern intended to break up the outline of the aircraft when viewed from above at altitudes of 10,000ft or less. There were two distinct patterns of this disruptive scheme applied to the aircraft on the production line known as the 'A' Scheme, and a mirror image, known as the 'B' scheme. The uppersurface colours extended down the fuselage sides to the lower longeron.

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