I often frequent Flightaware, to enjoy photos of aircraft, old and new. I found a couple of what I think are outstanding looking photos I wanted to share with you.

One is a reproduction, flying FW-190A, check out that Reich defense band near the tail! The other, a North American P-51D Mustang in flight, complete with 108 gallon drop tanks.

I thought the Mustang was particularly interesting because of the olive drab camouflage on the tail and fuselage. It has been a source of some discussion whether the aircraft that carried this scheme had blue or olive drab for the markings.
I believe the idea for blue camouflage came from reports from people on the ground, specifically the Royal Observer Corp who said that these machines had blue on them. It never made much sense to me, I always thought the olive drab was a more likely candidate. What is your opinion? Russell

It would have been olive drab, given that it was there for camouflage purposes. The blue myth comes from some original colour pictures that were published from the late '60s or early '70s of a flight of 4 Mustangs from the "Bottisham Four" 361st FG, 375th FS (3 -Ds and a -B) . The orignal negatives had been developed badly and the green reproduced as blue.
Here's the poorly developed photo courtesy of Wikipedia:

And here it is properly colour-balanced showing the green as it should appear:

This photo copyright Gaëtan Marie and courtesy of his Flickr page.

Here's a profile of the second aircraft and the story of the pictures.

I thought so Jessica. Thanks for your input. Interesting article you provided on the Mustang too. Russell

Thanks for these nice photos, Russell. I especially like the Fw 190 A-8, as I've never seen one flying yet. It's one of my favourite WW2 aircrafts. The only one in flying condition here in Europe I know, was "sunk" in 2010 in the Mediteranean Sea close to a southern France beach and is in repair since then ....
If you don't mind, I could share some photos of warbirds like Spitfires, Warhawks, Mustangs etc. I made on airshows last year in Germany.

Torsten

Yes Torsten, please share your photos on this thread or start your own. That would be great. Russell

Jessica, Russell:

I completely agree. Here is why. At the risk of being critical of a researcher that I otherwise have the utmost respect for, Mr. Dana Bell, who has written that he never questions the word of a WW2 vet, I believe that the Royal Observer Corp simply reported what they saw, without any analytical or corroborating evidence; after all, we have countless eye-witness accounts from trained observers of evens that did not happen (i.e., B-17 crews reporting 'a battleship blowing apart', etc.; and other strange, now refuted sightings, i.e., overall red Zeros).

I used to fly with the son of the curator of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, who told me of the acrimony concerning the blue "Bottisham Four" planes. These 'blue' P-51s are immensely popular with modelers and warbird enthusiasts (the P-51s restored and flown from Fort Wayne, Indiana in the late 1980s were all painted like this -- I wish I could find my photos of them). National Museum of the United States Air Force used to get lots of inquiries about the 'blue P-51s' and finally put the matter to rest: they not only developed color photos from the original negatives and performed analysis of those negatives, but they also had the surviving members of the photographed "Bottisham Four" flight sign affidavits attesting to them being painted O.D.

Steam locomotives in the color film era were predominately black. However, a black metal surface surprisingly reflects the sky very well, and under a sunny sky will look blue as seen here:


That magnificent beast was shot by me with a digital camera in 2002.

The atmosphere can play tricks with color refraction. As to how an aircraft might reflect the sky, look at this flight of warbirds taken over central Illinois a few years ago. Note the blue reflection on the vertical stabilizers of the P-51 and F-86, as well as their fuselage flanks. I contend that the O.D. "Bottisham Four" planes demonstrate this phenomena and that is probably why ground observers recorded them as blue, without any follow up.