purpose of Japanese yellow on L.E.
02-12-2004, 03:41 AM
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purpose of Japanese yellow on L.E.
just a quick question for you smarties. ive wondered what the purpose of the safety yellow on the leading edge of the wings on just about all the Japanese planes in wwii. was it for spotting from the carriers?
mike
mike
02-12-2004, 07:03 AM
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RE: purpose of Japanese yellow on L.E.
I believe it was for identification, sorta like the black and white invasion stripes applied to Allied airplanes for D-Day.
HTH
Jim
HTH
Jim
02-12-2004, 11:38 AM
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RE: purpose of Japanese yellow on L.E.
Seems they were primarily for identifying friendlies. I found this from http://www.j-aircraft.com/faq/japanese_id_yellow.htm and copy/paste:
Posted By: François P. WEILL <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, 30 November 2000, at 12:06 a.m.
In Response To: Re: I.D. Yellow (Grant Goodale)
Hi Grant,
Sorry not to fully agree with you as far as IJNAF is concerned.
In fact we still don't know exactly WHEN these IFF stripes were introduced but some were noticed as early as November 1942. Jim Lansdale once signaled an intelligence report dated Nov. (or Dec.) 42 quoting their presence on a shot down Betty in SWPA.
Now if you look to the profiles provided in Model Art # 439 (Heroes of the IJNAF), you'll notice on page 8 three profiles of Pete floatplanes. The first one, coded Y1-23 from the Chitose is very famous as it is the plane used by Kiyumi Katsuki (pilot) and Michio Takarada (observer) to ram and shoot down a B 17, which was on the verge to sink a tender. The profile has a caption dating the plane rendition as Oct. 1942 and it has no IFF bands. The two other profiles depict Petes on January 27 1943 from tender Kunikawa Maru (L2-8 and L2-11, respectively) on transport escort. Both have already the IFF bands.
For Army planes, I've not yet positively identified even a probable date of introduction of the IFF bands and it seems to be even more complicated as some very early examples in home defense duty on Ki 27 fighters seem to have existed with red and not yellow IFF bands (these bands seem to be wider and shorter than the more current and later yellow version). These early examples might have been introduced as early as just after the Doolittle raid! ...
What remains unclear to these days is when (and where) IJAAF began to use yellow bands as a mandatory feature for all combat planes...
To this day, I only noticed a fact that date back to mid 1942: the introduction by the Brits of Mohawk IV fighters from India. On the British side, used to see only inline engine on allied fighters, it induced reported mistakes with interception of Mohawk IV particularly when escorting Blenheims (themselves often confused with Ki 48 "Lily") as the Mohawks where identified as Ki 43 Hayabusa (see corresponding article in an old Air Enthusiast). I think this confusion might well have happened the same way but "the other side". In fact it might have been the source of the adoption of yellow IFF bands in the Burma theater by the IJAAF as early as September to October 1942. Another explanation might be the beginning of joint operations against Northern Australia between IJAAF and IJNAF as a common identification feature...
Finally notice that if the IJNAF used in fact two positively identified yellow (an orange yellow and a weak, toward cream pale yellow) it appears that the IJAAF was much less strict and plain orange or even red have been both reported for these IFF bands as is the more common orange yellow.
There is a lot of research yet to be done to clear this very interesting point (or can of worms???
)) )...
Posted By: François P. WEILL <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, 30 November 2000, at 12:06 a.m.
In Response To: Re: I.D. Yellow (Grant Goodale)
Hi Grant,
Sorry not to fully agree with you as far as IJNAF is concerned.
In fact we still don't know exactly WHEN these IFF stripes were introduced but some were noticed as early as November 1942. Jim Lansdale once signaled an intelligence report dated Nov. (or Dec.) 42 quoting their presence on a shot down Betty in SWPA.
Now if you look to the profiles provided in Model Art # 439 (Heroes of the IJNAF), you'll notice on page 8 three profiles of Pete floatplanes. The first one, coded Y1-23 from the Chitose is very famous as it is the plane used by Kiyumi Katsuki (pilot) and Michio Takarada (observer) to ram and shoot down a B 17, which was on the verge to sink a tender. The profile has a caption dating the plane rendition as Oct. 1942 and it has no IFF bands. The two other profiles depict Petes on January 27 1943 from tender Kunikawa Maru (L2-8 and L2-11, respectively) on transport escort. Both have already the IFF bands.
For Army planes, I've not yet positively identified even a probable date of introduction of the IFF bands and it seems to be even more complicated as some very early examples in home defense duty on Ki 27 fighters seem to have existed with red and not yellow IFF bands (these bands seem to be wider and shorter than the more current and later yellow version). These early examples might have been introduced as early as just after the Doolittle raid! ...
What remains unclear to these days is when (and where) IJAAF began to use yellow bands as a mandatory feature for all combat planes...
To this day, I only noticed a fact that date back to mid 1942: the introduction by the Brits of Mohawk IV fighters from India. On the British side, used to see only inline engine on allied fighters, it induced reported mistakes with interception of Mohawk IV particularly when escorting Blenheims (themselves often confused with Ki 48 "Lily") as the Mohawks where identified as Ki 43 Hayabusa (see corresponding article in an old Air Enthusiast). I think this confusion might well have happened the same way but "the other side". In fact it might have been the source of the adoption of yellow IFF bands in the Burma theater by the IJAAF as early as September to October 1942. Another explanation might be the beginning of joint operations against Northern Australia between IJAAF and IJNAF as a common identification feature...
Finally notice that if the IJNAF used in fact two positively identified yellow (an orange yellow and a weak, toward cream pale yellow) it appears that the IJAAF was much less strict and plain orange or even red have been both reported for these IFF bands as is the more common orange yellow.
There is a lot of research yet to be done to clear this very interesting point (or can of worms???
)) )...
02-12-2004, 09:24 PM
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RE: purpose of Japanese yellow on L.E.
Voyager,
No expert on this and can only relate what I read, but you got me confused. I had to dig out the Don Thorpe books. He doesn't say much, but that they were referred to as Identification markings. I also have a few Koo-koo Fans and they discuss and indicate paint jobs for various aircraft, but avoid the subject of these markings, except that their length was about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the leading edge length.
Don indicated that the combat planes of the Army began using them in 1941 and the Navy began using them in 1943. For the Navy, this is about the time that most paint schemes went from gray to green. Green at a distance can resemble U.S. Navy dark blue.
Wm.
No expert on this and can only relate what I read, but you got me confused. I had to dig out the Don Thorpe books. He doesn't say much, but that they were referred to as Identification markings. I also have a few Koo-koo Fans and they discuss and indicate paint jobs for various aircraft, but avoid the subject of these markings, except that their length was about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the leading edge length.
Don indicated that the combat planes of the Army began using them in 1941 and the Navy began using them in 1943. For the Navy, this is about the time that most paint schemes went from gray to green. Green at a distance can resemble U.S. Navy dark blue.
Wm.
02-12-2004, 11:49 PM
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RE: purpose of Japanese yellow on L.E.
I don't profess to know ANYTHING about this topic. What I posted was what I found after googling the question. It seemed to me to answer the question asked in post #1. Thats all.
I did say they were I.D. markings (you agree). The rest of the post went into WHEN they were instituted.
I guess I'm confused as to why you are confused. lol.
I did say they were I.D. markings (you agree). The rest of the post went into WHEN they were instituted.
I guess I'm confused as to why you are confused. lol.
02-13-2004, 03:09 PM
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RE: purpose of Japanese yellow on L.E.
It is my understanding that the RAF applied the yellow leading edge as a quick recognition aid during head on confrontations when other markings would not be visible. I assume that it is a possibility the Japanese had the same idea.
