War Diaries Talk

Strange plane seen - aviation experts

  • amartin44 by amartin44

    Have just finished tagging this page http://talk.operationwardiary.org/#/subjects/AWD0002ze9. Near the bottom they mention a strange looking plane with curved back[edit] wing tips. Anyone know if this was anything special or just an uneducated observer?

    I would be interested in knowing.

    Cheers,
    Andrew

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    He doesn't sound uneducated - clear reference to what he would normally expect to see. It could be that a particular squadron had just got a new paint scheme, or new aeroplanes had just arrived, but I guess it could also have been a bit of subterfuge on the part of the enemy.

    Difficult to say for sure, but perhaps somebody has heard of this before?

    Posted

  • brownfox by brownfox

    At the risk of being thought pedantic, I think it actually says curved back wingtips rather than black. It sounds more like a new type of plane rather than just a paint job.

    I agree with @ral104 - this is a guy who sees planes going over on a regular basis and he obviously thought this one was unusual enough to make a note of it.

    Posted

  • amartin44 by amartin44

    You are right, curved back wingtips. Have edited post. Thanks for spotting.

    Posted

  • amartin44 by amartin44

    I wonder if he saw a Taube? that certainly looks like what he described. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etrich_Taube.

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Maybe...fits the description, doesn't it? And one of its roles was reconnaissance.

    Posted

  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    Virtually any German plane was called a Taube by British troops later in the war. Ironically the name means dove, a bird usually associated with peace.

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Thanks, David, that's really interesting. I wonder what naming committee came up with that one!

    Posted