Avengers with interesting white stripes ...

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7819

Avengers in interestingly three different schemes and a thin white stripe running up the cowling, which perhaps is an aid for lineup during torpedo attacks? Unfortunately not sure what air group or carrier. I've looked through all my Avenger photos and see nothing similar.

LIFE photo highlighted by Tommy H. Thomason "Tailhook Topics"

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7819

These are the three schemes that were pointed out above.

TBF M-1

TBF

TBF-1C Avenger with Torpedo Squadron Eighteen VT-18 from CV-11 USS Intrepid

fnqvmuch · **Joined:** Thu May 13, 2010 7:01 pm **Posts:** 64

Mark Allen M wrote:

Avengers in interestingly three different schemes and a thin white stripe running up the cowling, which perhaps is an aid for lineup during torpedo attacks? Unfortunately not sure what air group or carrier. I've looked through all my Avenger photos and see nothing similar.

the way the nose drops in those photos i would think very little of the stripe would be visible from the cockpit, is there
any reason for it to be for the benefit of an external point of view?

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7819

A couple more photos showing the white stripe ...

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:57 pm

that is the seam from where they joined the fuselage halves together, I hate filling seams.
Maybe a aid for lining up on the carrier ?

Pathfinder · **Joined:** Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:35 pm **Posts:** 587

Don't see one static prop blade til back on the fighter row---they're all turning up front!!!!!! Brings to mind the trivia question, "What is the most dangerous work environment in the world?" A: The deck of an aircraft carrier.

SaxMan · **Posted:** Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:58 pm

You sent me back into my pictures from the CAF's NCS Avenger restoration at Jack Kosko's place to see if I had any from the cockpit looking out over the cowling. Looking at the pics, there is no doubt that you can see the white stripe from the cockpit. Granted, though, the TBM's cowl was a bit less sloping than the original TBF. My guess is that this was some kind of backup for sighting the torpedo or perhaps a way of lining up on the carrier deck's center line for landing? With a 54' wingspan, I imagine you didn't have a whole lot of room for lateral errors in your landing, especially on the smaller jeep carriers.

Jim MacDonald · **Posted:** Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:59 am

I was thinking more of an aid during a deck run takeoff to make sure you're keeping straight down the deck. I would think that during landing, you'd be more focused on the LSO than on looking at the nose of the plane.

Mac

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7819

Greetings Mac, always good to hear from you. Any idea who there guys are? Looks to be an Essex class carrier or a least one of the other larger fleet carriers. I'm still looking for the original LIFE series these photos came from.

M

lmritger · **Posted:** Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:29 am

Mark, try searching for "Palau" or "J.R. Eyerman"... there's some excellent ones in the Palau set, not sure if you've seen them or not.

Cheers,

Lynn

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7819

Thx Lynn, yes I've seen those series. I've seen the series before from the first photo I posted as well. Just have to go back and find it again. Of all the Avenger photos I've collected over the years (probably a thousand) none others have the white stripe like these do. Interesting indeed.

SaxMan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 15, 2014 9:44 am

Jim MacDonald wrote:

I was thinking more of an aid during a deck run takeoff to make sure you're keeping straight down the deck. I would think that during landing, you'd be more focused on the LSO than on looking at the nose of the plane.

Mac

With the Avenger being a tail-dragger, you wouldn't be able to use the stripe as a reference until the tail lifted, which would be close to the end of the run.

Maybe we're overthinking this. If it was just one squadron that had the nose stripe, perhaps they used the nose stripe as their identification markings, not unlike the early rudder markings that differentiated on carrier's planes from another?

Snake45 · **Joined:** Sat Apr 05, 2014 5:49 pm **Posts:** 864

SaxMan wrote:

Maybe we're overthinking this. If it was just one squadron that had the nose stripe, perhaps they used the nose stripe as their identification markings, not unlike the early rudder markings that differentiated on carrier's planes from another?

I was thinking the same thing. Perhaps a subtle tactical or identification marking that would be visible to other friendly airplanes in the air, but wouldn't be obvious to the enemy?

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7819

Here's the LIFE series from William C Shrout, November 1943 Rabaul raid.

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/ad ... 66cac.html

SaxMan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 15, 2014 11:57 am

Another theory: Avengers were used more often in the glide-bombing role as opposed to dropping torpedoes. Seeing that there is no sight or telescope like you see on the SBDs, perhaps the stripe down the nose was a rudimentary way of helping the plane stay on target (i.e. not in a skid) during the bomb run?

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Avengers with interesting white stripes ...

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