The Little World

I have often remarked the stripes that appear on the horizontal stabilisers of WW2 Japanese aircraft.

They are on the upper side and form a fan radiating outwards from the front of the vertical stabiliser – some tails have them in white – some in yellow. This Aichi Val tail has them in red. They look good.

But why are they there? Just for decoration, like some of the USAAF nose art? Excess paint aboard the aircraft carriers? Now the broader bands on the fuselages are ID markings for different squadrons or carriers. And vertical stabilisers or rudders bear similar ID stripes.

I think they are either artistic licence – echoing bird tails – or are intended to be visual aids for the other planes in a ” Vic ” formation to line up. You can see them only from the top and they are straight to your eye if you are in the correct position up and down or left to right.

The US Navy did a similar thing in the ” Yellow Wing ” era with a broad Vee stripe on the top of the wing.