discussion RAF High Speed Silver?

[Guest]

This may sound a daft question, but what colour is high speed silver, as seen on the undersides of 50s RAF jets? By that, I mean is it a shiny silver, or more like a flat aluminium?

 

[flyjoe180]

It is more of an aluminium colour Andy. The RNZAF also used High Speed Silver on it's Vampires, Mosquitoes and P-51Ds post-war. It is a mixture of alumium and lacquer dope. As it aged it became duller in appearance.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Joe; I thought it probably was. It's for the underside of my Airfix Javelin, so I think I'll got for Alclad Aluminium.

 

[flyjoe180]

Pleasure to help. I read somewhere that the polished lacquer finish added 30mph to the top speed of the P-51s. So while it wasn't overly shiny it did the job.

 

[Guest]

There was no such colour; there was silver "to a high-speed finish" which wasn't the same thing.

When Camm was building the Hunter prototype, he found that the silver paint wouldn't stick to it, so he had it painted in the F.A.A. colour Sky, which, at that time, had a gloss varnish applied over the top.

The silver that the Ministry eventually settled on tarnished dreadfully, in fact, when I went round the Halton workshops, in the 1970s, it was virtually impossible to differentiate between Hunters which had silver undersides and those in light grey.

 

[flyjoe180]

It may not be a colour in itself, but from a modelling point of view it would be the equivalent of aluminium or silver with a clear lacquer dope, and as said, as it aged it became duller in appearance. Which would be the (apparently rapid) effect seen on the Hunters in Edgar's post above.