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This has always got me puzzled, when you view an RAF aircraft from one side the tail flash is Red-White-Blue which to me is the correct way to see it, but when the aircraft is facing the other way the tail flash is Blue-White-Red.
When I first saw this on FS models I thought the painter had just cut and pasted it without thinking, then I saw actual photographs of real aircraft and theirs is the same.
I wonder why it is that way, because I still read from left to right so to me the flash is wrong on one side but their must be a logical reason why this is done, so does or can anybody explain please?

You hear the phrase, "The old red white and blue," you don't say, "The old blue white and red."

If you notice US aircraft that displays the flag, they put it the right way round on both sides of the aircraft, I once loaded an paint I did of an American plane and the first comment was, "Very nice but you got the flag the wrong way round," when I looked I realised my mistake.

The red should always face the leading edge of the tail fin according to the RAF standards. This also applies to RN, Army RAAF and RNZAF aircraft. The French Air Force used have a tail flash that had the blue first but they no longer use the tail flash

Thanks John, you answered my question, something I never knew and I no longer need to puzzle anymore.

The reason that the roundels and the fin flash are the way they are is due to WWI. The first planes arrived in France and had the Union Jack painted on them but it was found that the only thing that stood out was the main cross of St. George and could be mistaken for the Iron Cross of the Germans and were fired upon by ground troops. So they changed to the roundel and fin flash system of the French and simply reversed the colours. That way if they were mistaken, they would be mistaken for French aircraft and as they were on the same side they wouldn't get fired upon by the allied side. On the fin the red always faces forward.

col1948 wrote:If you notice US aircraft that displays the flag, they put it the right way round on both sides of the aircraft, I once loaded an paint I did of an American plane and the first comment was, "Very nice but you got the flag the wrong way round," when I looked I realised my mistake.

On US military aircraft and vehicles, the flag is alwasy displayed advancing. That is, the blue field towards the front of the vehicle so that if the flag was on a pole it would seem to be streaming in the wind as the vehicle moves forward. This means a flag on the right side of the vehicle will have the blue field on the viewers right and a flag on the left side of the vehicle will have the blue field on the viewers left.

When displayed not on a vehicle, the blue field should always be in the viewers upper left, except for those flags worn on the right sleeve of US service uniforms in which case the advancing rule is in play again.

Examples:

Advancing flag on a uniform:


Standard display flag pin on chest of uniform:


Advancing flags on the left and right sides of the POTUS VH-60N




Welcome to the wacky world of US flag display. Verterans and Boy Scouts know it by heart, everyone else has to look it up. Trust me, most people in the US don't get it right. I get all teeth grindy all the time when I see people who have put flag stickers on their cars and they have them wrong.

Thanks Steve I never know the history of the tail flash. I do know that allied aircraft in the Pacific Theatre during WW2 removed the red from their national markings in case it was mistaken for the Japanese rising sun on their aircraft.

Its a common mistake to fly the British flag the wrong way up. Here is a guide from a British school:

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent. ... jack7.html

If my memory serves me right, going back a few years, it was the death of a member of the Royal family I think, and the Union Jack was hoisted at half mast but it was upside down.
It was a good while before anyone noticed it and it was corrected.