Re: US Navy nose cone colours?

lee garnett wrote:

> Could anyone explain what the rules were for nose cone colours on Navy jets
> during Vietnam?
>
> Is it Squadron Commander, Pacific vs Atlantic, paint available.......

> The pictures of F4s, F8s and A7s I've seen shown black and white even on the
> same carrier [and the occasional pale yellow].

Part of it depended on when the aircraft was delivered. I don't know too 
much about the Phantoms, but for the Tomcat I know that initial 
deliveries had the front of the radome left unpainted (pale yellow) and 
part of it white, with the rest of the airplane being light grey on top 
and white on the bottom (with white control surfaces).
Later aircraft used to have the light grey on top and white on the 
bottom extended to the radome.
Aircraft delivered in the late `seventies were light grey overall and so 
was the radome. Aircraft delivered in the `eighties were drab grey 
overall (with a somewhat lighter shade on the bottom than on the top).

Generally aircraft in serving the same squadron would in principle have 
more-or-less the same paintjob, including a certain colour (or lack of 
it) on the radome. In part this was due to squadrons being equipped with 
new aircraft from the same production batch. In part it was because of 
squadron traditions.
For instance,  VF-41 `Black Aces' had black radomes on their Phantoms 
for a very long time, and even continued this tradition when they 
initially recieved Tomcats, making one cruise with them in full colour. 
 Sadly, VF-41 was one of the first Tomcat units to tone down, leading 
to the end of the tradition.  VF-31 `Tomcatters' also used to have black 
radomes on their Phantoms and Tomcats, and kept painting the radomes 
black on many of their aircraft into the early `ninetees.

Obviously, aircraft would tend to be swapped from unit to unit, so units 
operating a type that had been in service for a while would often have a 
mixture of aircraft that had previously served with other units and 
would have been maintained by those other units.

Regards,
Ralph Savelsberg


> Thank you in advance for any help
>
> Lee