AIRCRAFT COLOURS AND MARKINGS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR ERA

Austria-Hungary: National Markings


The earliest Austro-Hungarian markings were ordered in place on 1 October 1913, these consisted of red/white or red/white/red wingtips; red/white rudder; red/white/red rings around fuselage and the imperial double-headed eagle on a yellow field (this last was actually rather rare, and can be seen on the rudder of only a few aircraft). On 9 August 1914, all aircraft were to fly a red/white pennant half the length of the fuselage from one wingtip. Finally, on 28 August , the tailplane was ordered to be striped r/w/r. Many variations of these stripes could be found. Some aircraft had them at the wingtips, some had them inboard, many aircraft didn't bother with them around the complete fuselage, rather they just used them on the side.

In May 1915, a black Iron Cross on a white field was ordered to be placed on the top and bottom of each wing surface, by July this had been modified to just the top of the upper wing and the bottom of the lower wing. A cross was also to be applied to the rudder/fin. The wing cross was to be placed half way between the centreline and the mid-point of the wing. In April 1916, crosses and fields, half the size of those on the wings, were added to the side of the fuselage. These were unpopular with the aircrew and were often removed in the field as they felt they served as an aiming point - this led to the fuselage cross being officially dropped in November 1916. By June 1917, it was refined to unoutlined crosses on plain aircraft, while those on dark surfaces were to be given a white outline or field. Again, this was not always complied with and on 25 September 1917, all aircraft were ordered to have white outlines or be on a white circle (!)!, those on the Southwest front were to have the lower wing cross on a white field.

When Germany went to a straight armed cross, Austro-Hungary followed suit with an order of 31 August 1918 stating that as time allows, all aircraft would now have the straight armed cross.

SERIALS

Austro-Hungary had three basic forms of serials for their aircraft. Pre-war each type was given a letter and all aircraft of that type were given a name, usually starting with that letter. . ie the Etrich Taube (Type A) had names starting with A (Asra, Anita); Lohner B.I -Type B (Brunhilde, Blitz), Lohner B.III - Type D (Delihab, Don Juan).

The second form was aircraft now used a letter as a prefix and had a sequential number. .. ie Lohner B.II Type C aircraft had serials C.1, C.2. ... while German-manufactured Aviatik B.Is were Av-1, Av-2.

The final form was introduced in February 1915 and consisted of a single, all encompassing serial which gave the company, aircraft type and individual number. Firstly every manufacturer was given a single digit designator

1 - Lohner (Lo)
2 - Phonix (Ph)
3 - Aviatik (Av)
4 - Lloyd (Ll)
5 - Oeffag (Oef)
6 - UFAG (U)
7 - Fischamend (Fd)
8 - WKF (WKF)
9 - MAG (MAG
10- Thone & Fiala (Th)

This number was the first part of the prefix number, while the aircraft type was the second digit. A period was placed after this second digit and the following digits indicated the particular aircraft's place in the production sequence. Therefore 12.21 was built by Lohner, was their second production model and was the 21st aircraft built. If the basic design was modified an additional digit could be added in front of the compay designator. . ie the series 153.xx was an improvement on the series 53. Prototype aircraft would be given the type number of 0, while foreign built aircraft were either included with their Austro-Hungarian affiliation - ie Albatros series 21 were built by their subsiduary company - Phonix (2), or given a company designator of 0, and a sequential numeral for that type. Captured aircraft were given a company and type designator of 00.

For a more indepth description of A-H national markings and serial practices, C&C(GB)17/1 is recommended. This was the first in a multi-part series of articles by Martin O'Connor and includes many photos and official drawings.