Photo By Clifford Davis | The T-34 aircraft for which Stolte designed the paint scheme is positioned at the...... read more read more
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – During the bleak, early days of World War II, Great Britain’s Royal Air Force was all that stood in the way of Hitler’s Luftwaffe and its total domination of the skies over Europe.
This summer, a college intern at Fleet Readiness Center Southeast helped recreate an iconic Spitfire paint scheme upon a request from VFA-122, a U.S. Navy training squadron for replacement pilots.
“The squadron sent us a photo of a Royal Air Force Spitfire from World War II and asked if we could do it,” said Michael List, an aerospace engineer at FRCSE. “We said, ‘Of course we can.’
“Thomas Stolte, one of our interns, was very productive in our group and I thought it would be a great assignment for him.”
With a little direction from List on where to find 75-year-old design metrics, the 21-year-old intern went to work.
“We found several documents on the 1940’s Spitfires in the British archives,” Stolte said. “Then I found the modern-day equivalent colors they use in the standards today.
“We added the few specific features we have for the T-34, like the shark’s mouth and the design was ready to go.”
After the concept and design were laid out, the aircraft went to the artisans at the FRCSE paint hangar for application.
What came out was a glistening reproduction of a World War II-era Spitfire paint scheme on the T-34 Turbomentor Navy trainer aircraft.
The aircraft will go back to VFA-122 at Naval Air Station Lemoore, Ca. There, instructors will use the T-34 to clear bombing ranges and serve as a safety aircraft by flying at the no-lower-than altitude during dive-bombing training.
In addition, according to instructors at the squadron, it will also be used as a recruiting tool for Naval Aviation by taking Naval Academy Midshipmen on familiarization flights.
Stolte, who will be graduating from college in weeks, is about to set off on a journey of his own. He ships out for the U.S. Navy’s Officer Candidate School in February.
“This was just a tremendously fun and rewarding internship,” he said. “Where else would you get to do something like this?”
| Date Taken: | 12.08.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 12.08.2017 08:17 |
| Story ID: | 257962 |
| Location: | JACKSONVILLE, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 518 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Intern has “royal” designs on T-34 aircraft at Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, by Clifford Davis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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