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RAF Coningsby – 41(R) Sqn BoB Tail Codes

Posted by: Fast Air Photography    Tags:  11 Sqn, 29(R) Sqn, 3 Sqn, 41(R) Sqn, BoB, RAF Coningsby, Typhoon    Posted date:  March 23, 2010  |  5 Comments

The short URL of the present article is: https://www.fast-air.co.uk/ryEEp

RAF Coningsby 23rd March 2010

RAF Typhoon T3 ZJ801 29(R) Sqn on finals
RAF Typhoon T3 ZJ801 29(R) Sqn on finals

So far this year the weather has been, quite frankly, rubbish! First we had all that snow and now we are getting a combination of cloudy days or rain. With that in mind when I saw the forecast for Tuesday 23rd March as promising sun I had to jump at the chance.

RAF Coningsby had the best forecast and it would give me a chance to catch up on the Typhoons delivered since my last visit and hopefully a marked up 6 Sqn Typhoon (they are due to stand up at the start of next month and three air frames already have 6 Sqn tail codes but no squadron markings flying).

No such luck with the 6 Sqn Typhoons but I was able to catch two of three Tornado GR4s operated by 41(R) Sqn with tail codes from the days when they operated Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. The tail codes have been applied to all the aircraft 41(R) Sqn operates.

41(R) Sqn BoB Tail Codes

41(R) Sqn Tornado GR4 - ZA611 - EB-L tail code
41(R) Sqn Tornado GR4 – ZA611 – EB-L tail code
41(R) Sqn Tornado GR4 - ZA447 - EB-R tail code
41(R) Sqn Tornado GR4 – ZA447 – EB-R tail code

29(R) Sqn, the Typhoon OCU, were busy as usual with Typhoon, Triplex and Shocker callsigns being used. Typhoon 47 and Typhoon 48 were flown as singletons on the Typhoon T3 with the QFI in the rear seat and the student in the front seat. They must still be early in the training program as the sortie only lasted an hour and both made a single engine overshoot.

RAF Typhoon T3 ZJ813 callsign Triplex
RAF Typhoon T3 ZJ813 callsign Triplex
Typhoon T3 ZJ806 - Typhoon 47 - single engine overshoot
Typhoon T3 ZJ806 – Typhoon 47 – overshoot
RAF Typhoon T3 ZJ806 29(R) Sqn on finals
RAF Typhoon T3 ZJ806 29(R) Sqn on finals
     

Shocker flight, 29(R) Sqn, were operating with 11(F) Sqn marked Typhoons, tail codes DH and DXI. This is because of the redistribution of Typhoons when a new airframe arrives.

3(F) were also operating using Rampage and Chaos callsigns. They were also making use of the ‘hot pit’ – an area where aircraft are left running the crew change, the aircraft hot refuelled and then go back out for another sortie. This practice is becoming more common of late as it helps to reduce the time needed to turn around aircraft but does mean for people outside the fence you see the same airframes again and again.

RAF Typhoon FGR4 ZJ939 - Shocker flight
RAF Typhoon FGR4 ZJ939 – Shocker flight
RAF Typhoon FGR4 ZJ942 - Shocker flight
RAF Typhoon FGR4 ZJ942 – Shocker flight
RAF Typhoon FGR4 ZJ921 - Rampage flight
RAF Typhoon FGR4 ZJ921 – Rampage flight
     

To commemorate 70 years since the Battle of Britain new 41(R) Squadron codes have recently been applied to the tail fins of various serving aircraft. Several Battle of Britain pilots who served with 41 (F) Squadron have thus been honoured. These include the following:

Sqn Ldr Hilary Hood, Sqn CO who flew Spitfire Mk Ia, EB-R P9428 applied to Tornado GR4 ZA447 / EB-R
Plt Off E Lock, who flew Spitfire Mk Ia, EB-G N3162 applied to Tornado GR4 ZA600 / EB-G
Plt Off Edward A Shipman, who flew Spitfire MkIa, EB-L applied to Tornado GR4 ZA611 / EB-L
Flt Lt Terry Spencer, who flew Spitfire MkXII, MB882 EB-B applied to Tornado GR4 ZD996 / EB-B
Sgt Plt Bill Brew, who flew Spitfire MkVa, R73034 EB-Q applied to Harrier GR9 ZD328 / EB-Q
Plt Off George Bennions, who flew Sptifire MkIa, X4559 EB-J applied to Harrier GR9 ZD437 / EB-J
Sqn Ldr Donald Finlay, who flew Spitfire MKIIa, P7666 EB-Z applied to Harrier GR9 ZD503 / EB-Z

With thanks to John Shipman, author of ‘One of The Few’.


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5 Comments for RAF Coningsby – 41(R) Sqn BoB Tail Codes

song

Quite curious about the tail code like EB-R or EB-L etc. What do these codes mean?

Reply

Fast Air Photography

Back in the days of WWII when the RAF was vastly bigger each squadron had their own code. Starting at AA they went on until they reached AZ then started at BA and on to BZ. This carried on through the alphabet.

41 Squadron’s code was EB.

This would be placed before the RAF roundel and afterwards each individual aircraft in that squadron would also get a letter so R would be the 18th aircraft and L would be the 12th aircraft assigned to 41 Squadron.

Reply

    song

    cool, thanks for answering me, really appreciate that, i always thought it was the base code sort of things. XD
    One more thing, the typhoon tail code confuse me even more tbh, eg. the ZJ813 and ZJ806 are suppose to be in the same squadron, but why they have different sqn code BE and BL? and also for the ZJ919, is that means DXI is actually a three letters sqn code ?

    Reply

Fast Air Photography

The aircraft codes on the RAF aircraft these days are a bit of a mixed bag depending on type and the squadron using them. Some types just use a number now as the aircraft are pooled and frequently change squadrons (the squadron markings for some types are on swapable plates so keeping the correct markings is easier).

For the Typhoons, they have so far kept with the historical coding. 29(R) Sqn whom BE and BL belong to have B as there squadron code and then the next letter is the aircraft code. I did rather generalise when I said they would be a two letter code for the aircraft. Wikipedia has a good breakdown of the codes for the squadrons….. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAF_Squadron_Codes

DXI is a bit of a cheat. The D is 11 Squadron’s code and the rest of their aircraft are single letters making their codes DB etc. The XI is of course Roman Numerals for 11 so they are relecting their squadron number in the aircraft number.

The Typhoon squadrons break down like this….

1 Sqn – F = the squadron code and then a single letter for the aircraft e.g. FA
3 Sqn – QO = the squadron code and then a single letter for the aircraft e.g. QO-R
6 Sqn – E = the squadron code and then a single letter for the aircraft e.g. EA
11 Sqn – D = the squadron code and then a single letter for the aircraft e.g. DB
17 Sqn – A = the squadron code and then a single letter for the aircraft e.g. AA
29 Sqn – B = the squadron code and then a single letter for the aircraft e.g. BL

Reply

    song

    I think i get it after all, again, thank you very very much.

    Reply



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