Why are the Red Checkers Painted Yellow?
Mr Peter Atkinson, Housing Officer/ Range Warden, Facilities Management Services, JLSO Property Group, Joint Logistics Support Organisation asked a pertinent question. ‘If the aerobatics team is named the ‘Red Checkers’ why are the aircraft painted yellow?’
W/O Ty cochran, the on-ground-voice of the ‘Red Checkers’, provides the following response:
The ‘Red Checkers’ was the name given to the original official formation aerobatics team created in 1967.
At that time the team flew the Harvard which was painted in a grey and red paint scheme. The team had a red checked pattern painted on the nose cowl. Over the years the aircraft changed from the Harvard to the CT4B Airtrainer (around 1976) painted in the same grey and red colour.
In 1996 a project was carried out to test the best colour scheme in relation to visibility. One of each CT4 was painted in white, black and yellow and one remained the grey and red scheme. The outcome of the project was that yellow offered the best detect ability in the air and the yellow paint scheme was adopted as standard.
The historic name ‘Red Checkers’ was kept and the nose of the aircraft painted with the red and white check pattern. In 1998 the CT4B was replaced with the current CT4E model. All current aircraft carry the red and white checks on the nose, and for the display season the team are allocated an airframe which has their name marked on the left hand side below the canopy. During periods when the aircraft are not used by the team they are used as pool aircraft for PTS and CFS flying.