World War One markings Q In the April edition, both Richard Wilshire and Remi Hodister asked when the national markings changed on aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service during World War One. A Charles Harding says a GHQ order of 11 December 1914 stated that the RFC in the field was to adopt the French roundel, but with the colours reversed so the blue circle was outermost. This was to replace the Union Jack which was applied to the wings and proved unsuitable for identification purposes because, at a distance, the St George's Cross appeared similar to the German cross. The new marking took some time to filter through to the squadrons, resulting in RFC scouts often flying with both the Union Jack and the roundel displayed on the wings and fuselage. From May 1915, vertical stripes of equal width in red, white and blue were applied to the rudder with blue leading against the rudder post - again, adopting the French policy but with the colours in a different order.
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