# Why World War II spy planes used pink camouflage



## observor 69 (20 Feb 2012)

Why World War II spy planes used pink camouflage
World War II marked a time of great innovation, which was sometimes practical and sometimes loony. Those two kinds of innovation came together when great military minds decided that to keep an airplane from being spotted, they needed to paint it pink. Find out why a pink aircraft can get lost in the sky.
The Spitfire is a much loved plane, even today. Built in the late 1930s, it has the look of a classic airplane, with an oblong, slightly rounded body, wings that look like a huge oval strapped to the plane, and a 'blister' of glass over the cockpit. Whenever someone steps out of a Spitfire they should have on leather flying gloves and an aviator's scarf blowing in the wind. That scarf, however, may be very tough to match with the plane. Spitfires went through extensive rounds of camouflage paint, from dark and light brown, to a pale gray, to a baby blue. Perhaps their most unusual color, though, was a light pink.

More at 
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## Fishbone Jones (20 Feb 2012)

For many years, the Lancaster mounted in Windsor's Jackson Park was painted as a night bomber, using the same colour pink in it's colour scheme.


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## mariomike (20 Feb 2012)

Night bombers were not pink. 
The Lancaster in Windsor FM212, was built in July of 1945 so it never saw any action during the war. It was placed in storage for a while then convereted to a Mk. 10P, a photographic prototype. It served with 413 Photo Squadron RCAF starting in 1947 then was transfered to 408 Squadron at Rockcliffe in 1949. It was retired in 1962 after logging 8069.5 hours, that made it one of the highest time Lancaster in the world. In the 1964 the city of Windsor decided they wanted to put up a WW2 memorial and bought FM212 for $1250. The above photo "Lanc1965" is what FM212 looked like after retirement from peacetime service in Canada.

If FM212 had left Canada during the war, it would have been painted as a night-bomber, as shown here:
http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=344872
( photos of the FM212 model, and restoration in progress )


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## Fishbone Jones (21 Feb 2012)

mariomike said:
			
		

> Night bombers were not pink.
> The Lancaster in Windsor FM212, was built in July of 1945 so it never saw any action during the war. It was placed in storage for a while then convereted to a Mk. 10P, a photographic prototype. It served with 413 Photo Squadron RCAF starting in 1947 then was transfered to 408 Squadron at Rockcliffe in 1949. It was retired in 1962 after logging 8069.5 hours, that made it one of the highest time Lancaster in the world. In the 1964 the city of Windsor decided they wanted to put up a WW2 memorial and bought FM212 for $1250. The above photo "Lanc1965" is what FM212 looked like after retirement from peacetime service in Canada.
> 
> If FM212 had left Canada during the war, it would have been painted as a night-bomber, as shown here:
> ...



I'm going from the news article that stated such when it was painted. I guess all those RCAF types were wrong. However, I only took the article and them at their word and never researched it. I also never said anything about it seeing combat.


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