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