P-51 Mustang with rare cammo

There is a picture of this aircraft in Squadron/signal pub #45, on page 11, stating the paint scheme, was applied for visual sighting tests.

It's been modeled on a couple of sites. Including by (our own?) Dirkpitt.

The plan was for the Germans to die laughing...

Dazzle camouflage was a very WW1 idea. The Tirpitz, Bismark and other large surface vessels in WW2 were not really a dazzle finish. They were intended to make the bow and stern of the ship look closer together than actually were, in other words seem farther away.

These remind me of the paint schemes Germany used on TIRPITZ.  I hadn't seen anything like it on aircraft before though (at least not with that amount of contrast).

Groot

Quote from Squadrons "Walk Around" book..

"Experimental Dazzle Pattern"

"USAAF Capt Paul Hexter designed a black and white dazzle camouflage scheme for the P-51 in 1942, that was reminiscent of a WW1 warship. While moderately successful, the application and maintenance of the scheme was labor intensive and it was not adopted. The upper surfaces were painted in the standard Olive Drab".

In a nut shell....it was a "one off".

There are other aircraft of the era that had a similar pattern...

I can't seem to find it now, but I remember seeing another photo of a bunch of TBD's on the back end of a carrier...there were 3-4 of them in this scheme, among another bunch that were in the standard silver / yellow wing scheme of the time.

I have never seen that scheme on a plane. Looks very similar to the PT boat striped scheme.