Author Topic: French tapes/edges on Moranes  (Read 1127 times)

Offline GrahamB

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French tapes/edges on Moranes
« on: August 29, 2014, 08:20:49 AM »
Hi,

starting to gather information about Morane types - especially Type N and have a few queries about French finishing methods during the 1915-16 period. Cross & Cockade are doing a very useful series on Moranes in RFC service at the moment (up to part 3 in a possibly 5-part series) and there are some wonderful photos of G, H, BB, L, and LA types. It looks as if most are in at least CDL finish but the wings are almost invariably dark, opaque and shiny suggesting the rubberised coating mentioned by Ray Rimmell and others (a brownish-greyish colour of various hues). Some also appear to have a patchy irregular finish, especially on the fuselage, of what are presumably RFC dyed varnishes and dyed spirits (browns and greens - see earlier post of mine). What is evident in some of the better photos is that the wings (and possibly elevators) were edged in a different colour that seems to have similar photographic properties (pale in full light, darker in diffuse light) to the blue tape recorded for Nieuports (and others) - this is lighter than the fuselage tape said to be brown, or perhaps black. The actual rib tapes seem to have the same tone as the edging (again in the best photos) but with the dark thin midline batten.

Any ideas or pointers to better information?  I don't have the Datafile on the Morane N - missed the last copies in Capital Books, Wellington - now gone.

Cheers,

GrahamB