3 Squadron 100th anniversary Typhoon

[Dave071]

Times New Roman - probably because it was designed by someone who booted up a cheap publishing software at RAF PR HQ that came with their iMac and the default font was Times New Roman.

I guess those colours are used for some sort of historical purpose? Simply ghastly design though. Something put togther in 15 mins with no artistic flair whatsoever

No it was made by an airman on his laptop using photoshop and to put it simply this was far from the original design for the jet, there were several in fact and this was the only design that was allowed to go through as there are strict rules to stick to when painting a typhoon aircraft. If there weren't then trust me it would look a lot different. I've seen the design up close on the jet and its a lot nicer than just looking at pictures. The whole thing was part of a 3 sqn competition.

[Dave071]

Yellow top and bottom you mean, like the 2002 Harrier tail? A yellow spine too?

That one above is 'inspired' by the standard shield they carry on the fin, which means the spine can be solid green.

I don't know where the red comes from in the real design, that looks so out of place.

Perhaps next time, they'll give you a shout...

Or just rip my design off again?

the red comes from another 3 sqn colour that isn't often seen. It refers to the blood spilt in the second world war by the groundcrew. Solid green along the spine wouldn't have looked good, the 3 sqn green is quite dark and would have looked out of place. I for one like it, its a nice simple design and is the first of hopefully many other painted jets.

[DamienB]

I just want this on a Typhoon.



And I don't care what squadron you disband in order to stand 56 up as a proper fighter outfit again. Just sodding do it.

[Macc]

I just want this on a Typhoon.



And I don't care what squadron you disband in order to stand 56 up as a proper fighter outfit again. Just sodding do it.

Would those squares be horizontal when the Typhoon is on the ground or in the air though?

[LN Strike Eagle]

the red comes from another 3 sqn colour that isn't often seen. It refers to the blood spilt in the second world war by the groundcrew. Solid green along the spine wouldn't have looked good, the 3 sqn green is quite dark and would have looked out of place. I for one like it, its a nice simple design and is the first of hopefully many other painted jets.

Interesting story regarding the red.

I don't see why a green spine would look "out of place" just because its dark? Plenty of recent schemes have had black spines. Having the red and yellow cheat lines on the spine does look odd IMO, because it just highlights the contours and makes all the misaligned text stand out even more. Needs a solid colour.

[Dave071]

the red comes from another 3 sqn colour that isn't often seen. It refers to the blood spilt in the second world war by the groundcrew. Solid green along the spine wouldn't have looked good, the 3 sqn green is quite dark and would have looked out of place. I for one like it, its a nice simple design and is the first of hopefully many other painted jets.

Interesting story regarding the red.

I don't see why a green spine would look "out of place" just because its dark? Plenty of recent schemes have had black spines. Having the red and yellow cheat lines on the spine does look odd IMO, because it just highlights the contours and makes all the misaligned text stand out even more. Needs a solid colour.

They tried a solid colour and it looked rubbish, believe me this way looks best. Plus, the green paint cost more money than the other colours, it would have cost to much

[LN Strike Eagle]

Tried it on what? A drawing? Can't be on the real jet if the paint was too expensive?

Interested to know more about the design process for special tails like this. Do they get tried on small scale models or anything first?

Could you expand on the restrictions and reasons that make a Typhoon more challenging than any other jet too?

[capercaillie]

Images of the Typhoon in the sunshine at following link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beefsteak44/7138957349/

Nice pics on there and it looks fine in the air, look forward to seeing it.

[st24]

Nice pics on there and it looks fine in the air, look forward to seeing it.

Agreed but surely his "juvenile buzzard" is a Sparrowhawk...

[capercaillie]

Nice pics on there and it looks fine in the air, look forward to seeing it.

Agreed but surely his "juvenile buzzard" is a Sparrowhawk...

It might be a Goshawk to be honest, its very heavy bodied, with bulging secondaries and a slightly rounded tail albeit damaged, but defo not a Buzzard.

[Dave071]

Tried it on what? A drawing? Can't be on the real jet if the paint was too expensive?

Interested to know more about the design process for special tails like this. Do they get tried on small scale models or anything first?

Could you expand on the restrictions and reasons that make a Typhoon more challenging than any other jet too?

No they didn't actually paint it but they used real images of the aircraft, not a drawn one and applied the colours and it was spot on to what the final would look like. The process began with a competition to allow some of the groundcrew to have a go at designing some and basically when a design was found that looked good it got pushed through to air command who would approve the designs. To start with they were told to use the whole tail fin so a design was made. Then they said it can't go onto the rudder so it was back to the drawing board. Then the battle honours were added to the rudder since it would be seperate from any fin images, they said no so it was back to the drawing board. Then the red and yellow stripe was added with the spine stripes which was approved but the badge on the back was just the cockatrice alone and that was a no because it had to be the whole badge instead. So basically the design was pushed down a path which inevitably resulted in what you see on it today. It took a long time and a lot of work and I know some people don't like it but it was the only design out of several that came close to being approved and then it had to be tweeked again.

I have an original design which I got a hold of which had the 3 sqn wickets stretched up the tail but it couldn't be used as it warped the wickets and thanks to the shape of the tail, any other similiar idea had to be warped to make it passable or look half decent but they were all rejected. Now that one jets been painted it'll be easier in the future to get other typhoons painted with more radical designs. Im not entirely sure why the typhoon was branded as unpaintable though...

Hope this helps with the process and hope people can appreciate the hard work put into what we see painted on.

[agdickie]

Thanks for the insight. Sounds like the RAF's nonsensical obsession with its "corporate image" rearing its ugly head again.

[LN Strike Eagle]

Thank you for taking the time to respond - I'm very interested in the process, even if other people aren't, so I'm grateful for your insight.

As you say, perhaps now that it's been proven it can be done, there might be a little more freedom on any future schemes as it seems there really wasn't much room to create with this design. Shame they forced you into using the whole crest.

The wickets are something that I had thought about myself actually - they were on the Harrier tail in 2002, which was one of my favourite RAF specials. I like a simple design the makes the most of the basic squadron colours and flashes - II, IV and XIII Sqns all had very striking designs along those lines in recent years.

[Craig]

Tried it on what? A drawing? Can't be on the real jet if the paint was too expensive?

Interested to know more about the design process for special tails like this. Do they get tried on small scale models or anything first?

Could you expand on the restrictions and reasons that make a Typhoon more challenging than any other jet too?

No they didn't actually paint it but they used real images of the aircraft, not a drawn one and applied the colours and it was spot on to what the final would look like. The process began with a competition to allow some of the groundcrew to have a go at designing some and basically when a design was found that looked good it got pushed through to air command who would approve the designs. To start with they were told to use the whole tail fin so a design was made. Then they said it can't go onto the rudder so it was back to the drawing board. Then the battle honours were added to the rudder since it would be seperate from any fin images, they said no so it was back to the drawing board. Then the red and yellow stripe was added with the spine stripes which was approved but the badge on the back was just the cockatrice alone and that was a no because it had to be the whole badge instead. So basically the design was pushed down a path which inevitably resulted in what you see on it today. It took a long time and a lot of work and I know some people don't like it but it was the only design out of several that came close to being approved and then it had to be tweeked again.

I have an original design which I got a hold of which had the 3 sqn wickets stretched up the tail but it couldn't be used as it warped the wickets and thanks to the shape of the tail, any other similiar idea had to be warped to make it passable or look half decent but they were all rejected. Now that one jets been painted it'll be easier in the future to get other typhoons painted with more radical designs. Im not entirely sure why the typhoon was branded as unpaintable though...

Hope this helps with the process and hope people can appreciate the hard work put into what we see painted on.

As said before, many thanks for the insight, pity that some were being so obstructive with it

The main thing really is that the anniversary has been suitably marked, but I don't know why top brass have been so heavy handed about it

[DamienB]

I have an original design which I got a hold of which had the 3 sqn wickets stretched up the tail but it couldn't be used as it warped the wickets and thanks to the shape of the tail, any other similiar idea had to be warped to make it passable or look half decent but they were all rejected.

Shame, it worked fairly well on the 90th anniversary jet, wonky eagle aside:



...though the other side was rather sparse and unbalanced:

[Dave071]

I've seen the harrier one before but had no idea it only had a cockatrice on the other side Think the typhoon looks better! Hope everyone gets to see the typhoon, it really does look better in person! I've had the privilege to see it up close and ask questions about it which is why I know so much about it

[Tonkaman]

I'd like to put a few myths to bed. There are some people on here claiming they know how this scheme came about and believe me, they don't. What I'm about to say is based on pure fact alone.
The design was indeed brought to life by one of the youngest members of the ground crew. The entire Sqn had a competition for designs and his came out top. Let's not forget that to people that belong to the Sqn, there are plenty of little details in there that are lost on people outside of that group. The aircraft has been painted to celebrate the centenary of the Sqn and not to win any design awards. I've seen on here that the C being yellow doesn't fit. Well that's there to highlight the roman numeral for 100 etc. Some people say that the colours chosen don't go together. Well again, those colours are an integral part of the Sqn and are steeped in history.
The evolution of the design was difficult and the process to get this approved is a long and complex one. I can say though that no wholesale changes were made to the original design. A few tweeks were made because the approval process insisted on this design being coordinated with the 2 Sqn Tornado. So please don't think that the Sqn had a free hand in being able to do whatever they wanted.
I've seen a few comments about battle honours. They were aiming to put them on the foreplanes so when they were in the parked position anyone looking at the front of the jet could see them. It was the approval process that forced the change to the intake.
On a slightly different note, the Typhoon force is exceptionally busy and let's not forget that Op Ellamy wasn't that long ago, 3 Sqn are only just back from a detachment and the guys and girls of the Armed Forces are committed to supporting the Olympics. So I for one believe they've done a great job, with not a great deal of time and not a great deal of manpower to take on projects like this.
I can also confirm that the Typhoon could, if so desired, be painted in pretty much any colour that was chosen. The reason it isn't, well, let's not forget what the aircraft does. For operational reasons, they remain the grey colour. Technically, the paint scheme as a whole is different from say a more traditional all-metal jet like Tornado, and as such it does take more time and effort to strip a predominantly CFC Typhoon. The GAF chose to use a vinyl wrap for the tail of the 74th FBW at jet at Neuburg by the way.
So in summary, I think they've done a great job and look forward to the next Typhoon paint scheme. Too many people on here love to jump to the negatives without really understanding the full story.
TM

[RoverDriver]

m

[Joe Spares]

I just want this on a Typhoon.



And I don't care what squadron you disband in order to stand 56 up as a proper fighter outfit again. Just sodding do it.

Wouldn't 74 Sqn be nice too, RAF could send some real aircraft to Tiger Meets then, and maybe add a bit of morale when competing against other fighter units.

[Dave071]

I'd like to put a few myths to bed. There are some people on here claiming they know how this scheme came about and believe me, they don't. What I'm about to say is based on pure fact alone.
The design was indeed brought to life by one of the youngest members of the ground crew. The entire Sqn had a competition for designs and his came out top. Let's not forget that to people that belong to the Sqn, there are plenty of little details in there that are lost on people outside of that group. The aircraft has been painted to celebrate the centenary of the Sqn and not to win any design awards. I've seen on here that the C being yellow doesn't fit. Well that's there to highlight the roman numeral for 100 etc. Some people say that the colours chosen don't go together. Well again, those colours are an integral part of the Sqn and are steeped in history.
The evolution of the design was difficult and the process to get this approved is a long and complex one. I can say though that no wholesale changes were made to the original design. A few tweeks were made because the approval process insisted on this design being coordinated with the 2 Sqn Tornado. So please don't think that the Sqn had a free hand in being able to do whatever they wanted.
I've seen a few comments about battle honours. They were aiming to put them on the foreplanes so when they were in the parked position anyone looking at the front of the jet could see them. It was the approval process that forced the change to the intake.
On a slightly different note, the Typhoon force is exceptionally busy and let's not forget that Op Ellamy wasn't that long ago, 3 Sqn are only just back from a detachment and the guys and girls of the Armed Forces are committed to supporting the Olympics. So I for one believe they've done a great job, with not a great deal of time and not a great deal of manpower to take on projects like this.
I can also confirm that the Typhoon could, if so desired, be painted in pretty much any colour that was chosen. The reason it isn't, well, let's not forget what the aircraft does. For operational reasons, they remain the grey colour. Technically, the paint scheme as a whole is different from say a more traditional all-metal jet like Tornado, and as such it does take more time and effort to strip a predominantly CFC Typhoon. The GAF chose to use a vinyl wrap for the tail of the 74th FBW at jet at Neuburg by the way.
So in summary, I think they've done a great job and look forward to the next Typhoon paint scheme. Too many people on here love to jump to the negatives without really understanding the full story.
TM

Yeah thats pretty much it, it did take some people a bit of time to do though but I mean a few hours every other week over several weeks but like I said in an earlier comment, this is just what I've heard. Are you 3 sqn?

[Dave071]

anyone see the 100th jet in the centre of the diamond formation on the flypast for the jubilee?