U.S. ARMY Fiat G-91 and Northrop F-5A

[f4h1phantom]

I am trying to gather information about the camouflage/colors used by those birds during the Army evaluation in the sixties, but haven't really found much on the net.

I would also like to know the serials of the aircraft involved.

The pics down here are pretty much almost all I got so far. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA!

:D

Jorge.

[jcunny]

I am trying to gather information about the camouflage/colors used by those birds during the Army evaluation in the sixties, but haven't really found much on the net.

I would also like to know the serials of the aircraft involved.

The pics down here are pretty much almost all I got so far. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA!

Jorge,

The F-5 is really the first production series a/c (they called it a NF-156 "Freedom Fighter"). It was silver painted laquer with the gray nose area just before the black radome. Testors, years ago put out a kit in these markings minus the "US. ARMY" titles.

JC

[madcow]

Jorge,

The G91 is probably wearing Luftwaffe colours. The first Portuguese Ginas used that camo too. It's dark green (RAL 6014) and gray (RAL 7012) on top and blue (RAL 5014) on the underside of the fuselage.

This is probably the scheme of the photo you posted. Then add orange :D

Here's a photo of a restored G91 using the same colours:

HTH,

Ricardo

Edited August 19, 2007 by madcow

[modelldoc]

Look for the Heller kit in 1.48, there is the american Gina inside.

modelldoc

[Dennis Buley]

:D According to Steve Harding's book: US Army Aircraft since 1947, the two Fiat G.91s that were borrowed from the Luftwaffe were as follows:

One was an Italian built G.91R-1, c/n 0052 that served with the Luftwaffe (BD+102)The other was a German built G.91R-3 (c/n 0065) Luftwaffe EC+105. From the b/w pics in the book, it looks like both a/c were in Luftwaffe camo, but there appears to be an orange or red tail as well as an orange/red section around the lower nose area. The numbers on the tail were the c/n's (0065 and 0052).

As for the N-156, the one that the Army used was 59-4987, which eventually became the YF-5A. The single b/w pic in the book looks like a natural metal finish with black radome and anti-glare panel from canopy to radome. There is a light colored band at the top of the tail and around the fuselage just aft of the radome. The a/c has no guns but has two underwing fuel tanks.

Hope this helps.

Dennis Buley

[Bill-TGH]

I was just reading about this one, thinking of a Canadian Army what-if....

Scale Aviation Modeller International Vol 8 Issue 11 Page 1032....

artwork on US Army 0065 shows a nearly NATO standard (ie Sabre Mk6) of dark grey & dark green over light grey, with LOTS of day-glo & US Army titals in white.... looks different than Luftwaffe artwork & pictures.... differs from ex-Luftwaffe FAP ships as well....

:o

Bill TGH

[Aggressor Supporter]

;)

[RotorheadTX]

This is text from an email got regarding this very subject.

I believe I got it from Hugh Mills, scout pilot extraordinaire.

"I am not aware of the F-5 being involved but the T-37 was a candidate and one of them is at Rucker in aluminum and Army markings in black. Somewhere, along with the Gina article, I have a copy of that. I will search the house next week on vacation but that is no promise I can find it. My filing system is memory based at best. The Rucker folks are very helpful in letting researchers look at exhibits that are not on display. I may have photos of the 37's but I believe the Ginas were returned to Italy. They had red tips and tail and the fuselage marking were yellow block as they were on helos of the period (early 60's). The T-37A's, three of them, were acquired under Project Long Bow in 1958. In 1961 the Army acquired two G-91R's (these may have come from Germany as they were a major user, but Italy is more likely), two A-4D's and the Northrop N-156F (F-5A prototype). I have two pictures from a magazine (Flightline No.7 Fall-Winter '95) of the G-91's both are in a scheme with dark grey and green uppers with a light blue underside. Black glare shield from rear of windscreen to the nose.

One has no markings other than stencils, stars and bars, and a white ARMY under the cockpit. The other has Day-Glo from the wingtips to the wing fence, around the intake from the rearmost point of the gun ports to about 6 inches from the intake lip, the top of this is at a line formed by the bottom of the

top gun barrel... not the port... the barrel. The tail has Day-Glo on a line that seems to be immediately in front of the horizontal stab (in the other picture there is a red line at this point maybe a common stencil for this a/c) a block on the tail apparently extending all the way to the rear of the rudder is

excluded where in white there are letters that appear to say U.S. ARMY and underneath that an uncertain serial # (bad angle the last two #'s appear to be 52) other than that it is the same as the first."

[f4h1phantom]

Thanks a lot for all your responses, gentlemen :D

I think both aircraft would make some very interesting models and, thanks to you, I think I am very close now to start modeling them!

Jorge.

[f4h1phantom]

Found another one!

Thanks to the information posted, I run a search on N156F and found this pic (with the previous one first for comparison):

Now, to add to the confusion (MY confusion!) there are a couple of intriguing variations regarding the first picture posted... or NOT!? While the tail title and numbers appear to be black here, I guess it is only because of the film used while they were actually yellow,as the rescue arrow and adjacent square also appear to be black. Again, while the nose black area seems to extends further to the rear of the aircraft, I guess it is actually a da-glo panel aft of the nose cone as the wing tips (which I think are in da-glo) are also much darker in this picture. Interesting though is what appears to be a round "camera port (?)" on the nose side, which I thought was just a stencil based on the first picture.

Just thinking aloud here, as I don't think my conclusions can be taken for granted.

Wish somebody could come up with a color pic...

Sincerely,

Jorge.

PS: Doesn't that mechanic (or whatever he is) look odd next to that jet with that cap and uniform? He sorta looks like a third world revolutionary commander!