An exotic and different camouflage

[sjk.fly4ever]

I share with you some pictures of aircraft applied with camouflage called Barclay. A question, does this camouflage was used operationally or only a test? To see the photos, please visit the link below.


http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/01/camuflagens-barclay.html



(http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/01/camuflagens-barclay.html)Best Regards.

[rwanttaja]

The second picture shows the camouflage extremely deteriorated. I'm guessing this was a temporary finish, applied with (water-based) tempera paint.

The US Army Air Corps did this in the late '30s/early '40s during some of the major Army war games. Like these examples, the national markings were covered over. They applied this kind of temporary camouflage to trucks and tanks as well. In the background of one of the pictures, you can see another plane with the pre-WWII markings, so I'm guessing it's about that era.

However, these examples appear to be all Navy aircraft (Devastator, Buffalo, etc.) and the background airplanes all have Navy markings. So I'm guessing this is a temporary war-game paint job, probably NOT associated with the Army exercises.

[Edit: Not the case. See next post.]

It's not aviation, I found a cute cartoon from the Army's 1940 war games illustrating their camouflage philosophy:
http://99percentinvisible.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/CamoSteed.jpg

Ron Wanttaja

[rwanttaja]

Found a similar picture to yours, with a caption that appears to explain it. Here's what the web page says:

"In mid-1940, the Navy tested a number of aircraft camouflage schemes designed by the noted artist and Naval Reserve officer McClelland Barclay. Some of these designs were applied to TBD-1 torpedo planes of at least two squadrons, VT-3 and VT-5, and were tested during fleet exercises held at that time. These tests had no lasting effect on U.S. Navy aircraft markings, except, perhaps, to persuade Naval Aviators that disruptive camouflage schemes had little use on planes intended for employment at sea."

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/ac-usn22/t-types/tbd-cam.htm

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/images/h96000/h96161.jpg

Here's a page on the Buffalo:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/ac-usn22/f-types/f2a-cam.htm

Ron Wanttaja

[TedK]

The RCAF paints a dark grey "canopy" on the underside of their CF-18 Hornets. I'm told it is rather effective in confusing the opponent in a dogfight.

http://eaaforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=5062&stc=1

[rwanttaja]

The RCAF paints a dark grey "canopy" on the underside of their CF-18 Hornets. I'm told it is rather effective in confusing the opponent in a dogfight.
Yes, and there's a tie-in to the Barclay scheme: Both were devised by artists, not military committees. The canopy-on-the-belly idea was part of a new camo scheme devised by Ferris in the '80s. An image search for "ferris camouflage" will show that the schemes themselves have some similarity.

For those who don't recognize the name, Keith Ferris is one of the "biggies" in aviation art. He's the one who painted the full-size B-17 mural at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.....

Ron Wanttaja