Ok, I think I am restarting a much repeated topic here, but I couldn’t find any earlier discussion here on the forum. My information regarding WWI tyres is, that before the 1920ies the rubber of the tyres had a creme color, almost white or even a pink or lilac shade depending on the rubber used. After WWI they found out that certain black additions made the tyre to last longer and so tyres became black.
For me this is a welcomed coincidence with my personal taste, as I simply prefer light colored aircraft tyres. It’s a simple matter of personal aesthetics, for me a biplane with light colored tyres simply looks better. But over the years I saw many (awesome) models with very dark tyres. I remember one of Des’ hints was to color the tyres with pencil graphite powder. And there are these “Palmer Chord Aero Tyres” decals with the WNW kits in white which are hard to be seen on a whitish tyre.
So what is your opinion? Were British tyres darker than German ones? (I remember an undercarriage of a Halberstadt CL Plane in the Technikmuseum Berlin that actually had almost white tyres) And what’s your favored color for WWI tyres?
Best regards
Borsos