Does anyone know if the USN flew their F2H-3 Banshees in a natural metal finish? I'm re-watching "The Bridges at Toko-Ri" in honor of the 60th Anniv. of the Korean War, and noticed that some of them appeared to be not gull grey, but an overall metal.
Just curious!
-Andy H
Yes, they did for a short period of time. But then they were painted blue for a short period of time and transition to the grey/white scheme starting in 1957.
Cookie Sewell
I saw photos of some, as well as early Grumman Panthers in NMF, and on the Yahoo group for early jet aircraft was informed that these were prototype aircraft. When accepted for service use, they were painted as the salt sea air would have eaten the aircraft alive.
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote the following:
I haven't seen that movie in a long while, but the plane that William Holden's character flew was a F9F Panther. At the time I thought that the Panther was the best looking of the early jets, so I remembered the plane and that it was painted blue. If there were Banshees in that film, I don't remember it.
Bill,
They're in the background of some of the deck scenes, such as when they are berthing the carrier in Japan.
Cookie Sewell
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