Friday 24 April 2009

IJN Tail Codes


Well known colour photograph which has appeared in various publications but worth showing again as a good, clear image for the colours of the tail codes.

'YoD-135' in yellow and 'YoD-198' in white. Note Zero behind Raiden also has yellow tail code and extreme weathering on Raiden. Unusual.

Note also Irving tail code 'YoD-198' is horizontal to ground line not airframe line.

In monochrome photographs it is difficult to determine whether codes are white or yellow. Did the colours signify anything? Hikotai?

Image credit: a-waka

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Straggler,

I think they did.In the book on the 302 Ku (KFI-96). It shows on page 158 a P1Y1 with YoD-153 and on page 160 an A6M5 with YoD-153.
IMHO that means they must have had different colors

Jacob.