On the topic of modeling, I am currently kitbashing an old Frog Fokker F.VIIb/3m into aa Atlantic C-2 military transport. This is no real big deal because the Atlantic was a license-built Fokker built for the Army (the Navy and the Marines used them as well, under different names). My problem is this; in 1926, what were the colors used by the Army for its transport aircraft? I've tried Googling the airplane, but all I've found were the "Josephine Ford", flown under Admiral Byrd's direction over the North Pole and the "America" used in a trans-Atlantic attempt. Byrd's aircraft was a very dark blue with orange/yellow wings and the "America" was silver (or light grey) with blue trim. Neither helps. I'm wondering if the aircraft might have had a dark or medium green (or the blue color also used) with chromate yellow wings. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
I need some advice
Sep 03, 2009
4 Replies
I have one B&W pic in a book. Whatever colour it's wearing is uniform over the whole airframe. The only visible markings are the tail stripes on the rudder. A quick trip through Dana Bell's 'Air Force Colors Vol.1' shows no Fokkers. Contemporary aircraft in the profiles seem to be in Olive Drab but Fords were left in natural metal. Perhaps that was due to the corrugated skinning?
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
I figure. I've read somewhere that the Alclad skinning wasn't overly friendly to the paints of the day.... Anyway, I've decided to go with the OD/Yellow scheme and follow modeler Al's old dictum. If it's not quite accurate, then it's relegated to the American "What- If" file, along with a front-line Bell Airacuda and the Curtiss Ascender.
I am not sure where I got this, but I think the OD and yellow scheme is appropriate. There was an air show in St. Louis many years ago that I participated in, and there was an honoring of the Fokker that was used in a duration record with refueling (I forget whether it was ground to air or air to air).
Yes, ground to air refueling. In that attempt a car or truck ran along the runway and someone handed cans of fuel to one of the crew on the airplane, which never touched its wheels to ground, so it could claim continuing flight.
Anyway, discussion and examination of pictures led to remarks that that plane was mostly OD. It WAS an Army plane, not a civilian one. Seems to me one of the crew was McCready.
MacCready's ship was the "Question Mark" and is shown in this photo
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refueled in the air by a Douglas C-1 (which kinda looks like a World Cruiser)
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