House Livery - Confederate Air Force

[CWBuff]

For TJ and anyone else who might be interestred. Here a couple of scans of the P-40 N1226N 42-105867 taken at Harlingen, TX in Oct 1962

Groovy! That's not the exact scheme I was thinking of, but those are wonderful...


Fade to Black...

[John Kerr]

Found another one, sorry it is so small, but it is the only shot that I have in my collection of this P-63A, N191H, 42-68941 in the early livery colors.
Photographer unknown.

[airnutz]

Wasn't there some sort of governmental restriction on painting civil aircraft in actual military colors? and that was the reason for the paint jobs?

The only US government restriction was that the aircraft had to display the N#
in 12-inch tall characters on a vertical surface. You could apply for an exemption
to that rule, but in the early days it was rare, if ever, to get approval. The
other exception was for film work.

I would guess the requirement was granted exception to the 12" rule more often later(late 60's/70's) as the
types of aircraft were clearly far removed from active military ownership confusion.

The "reason" for the "CAF colors" was purely as an ID to "that" flying club of yayhoos!
Very exciting stuff for this kid in 1963 when I saw them at a small show.
Texas had Herself an air force!!!

[Cripes A Mighty]

Forgot I had this

[Sasquatch]

Guys...OUTSTANDING! I just fired up the ol' confuser this morning and I see that you all have put up some truly great photos...exactly what I was hoping for when I started this thread! Thanks a bunch for digging into your personal archives and posting all these goodies for us. I love this sort of thing...helps fill in some of the holes in my memory. I saw a few of these birds when I was a kid, but didn't have a camera, so this is great stuff and I really appreciate it

So can anyone take a guess as to about what years the bulk of these paint schemes were active? I'm guess early 60's...but from what year to what year is beyond my knowledge.

Thanks again for all your efforts...

--Tom

[Sasquatch]

note Carolyn in the background of the B25 shot

May I ask...who is Caroyln?

Also, both the B-25 and the A-26 look silver in those nice color photos. Were they really silver? Or were they white, and it's just that the photos have some age that make them look silver?

Thanks...

--Tom

[John Kerr]

A short history on the B-25J, N3676G, 44-29835. Acquired by the
CAF in June 1967 grounded due to wing spar problem in 1970's, to Lackland AFB, TX October 1980 for display. Note: Still on display there.

Here are a couple of more photos as Rodwy's Raiders.
1st is in Oct 74 and she was sitting in the display area and no longer flying.


2nd. Taken in Oct 1980 shortly before departured to Lackland AFB, TX.

[skymstr02]

May I ask...who is Caroyln?
--Tom

Carolyn was the Martin B-26 Marauder. Carolyn was the nose art.

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

What ever happened to Mike Dillon?

[Ztex]

note Carolyn in the background of the B25 shot

May I ask...who is Caroyln?

Thanks...

--Tom

She was a beautiful machine...

[BCalmes]

Thats white lightning, it had a fighter type nose when Lefty got it in 1961 and shortly afterward they fitted it with the snoop. Before it got the paint job.

The origins of this nose seem to come up pretty often on WIX.

The late Vern Cartwright, who owned 44-53087 from 1958-1961, once told me the nose was modified from its original fighter configuration in the early '50s by Spartan Air Services Ltd. in Canada. Lefty bought it from Cartwright Aerial Surveys, left the photo nose on it, then sold it to another aerial photo company (Kucera) when he found N25Y with a fighter nose. A later owner found a fighter nose for it at the MGM auction.

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p38registry/p38-4453087.html

The nose was configured for a single camera, and a photographer sat (hunched?) immediately behind it over the nose wheel well. There was a hatch on top of the nose for ingress/egress. I think the F-5G was configured for multiple cameras and no photographer. I've never seen a photo of a P-38 variant with such a large bubble on the nose in military service, though I've seen a photo of another P-38 with an identical nose in service with Spartan.

However, this nose did have the keystone-shaped side windows like those used for oblique cameras on the F-5s. Maybe it was a further modification of an F-5?

Does anybody have a photo of such a nose in military service... big bubble and all? Thanks.

Bill

[T J Johansen]

Forgot I had this

Now that is a program which just begs to be scanned, don't you think?

T J

[bipe215]

What ever happened to Mike Dillon?

He's done okay.

http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/home.html

[P51Mstg]

Mike Dillon also is known for his MiniGuns.

www.dillonaero.com

Mike was also a pretty darn good writer back in the late 60's and early 70's on Air Progress Magazine as well as Flying I believe. He's also a heck of a nice guy with a Tempco SuperPinto, 2 T-34s, I think one Turbine T-34, an MD500D or E, as well as a H-Model Huey............

Also he has a decent collection of Class 3 weapons. For those interested, he also started selling MiniGuns to the civilian market as "Post-Samples"

Mark H

[SPANNERmkV]

Awe inspiring seeing ALL those different beasts in CAF paint schemes.

I wish I had THREE B17s
One to leave as TEXAS RAIDERS
One to paint in NAVY livery and
One to paint in original CAF...

THAT would be a formation flight!

SPANNER