In 1912 there were only three Swedish military aircraft, so neither the navy nor the army (which had two of them) felt any need to give them any identities nor markings.
As the number of aircraft grew, the Army numbered its two monoplanes "M1" and "M2" and the biplanes "B1" and "B2".
The navy gave each aircraft an individual designation consisting of the initial of the maker and a roman numeral. "L1" for the first Léveque, "N" for Nieuport and "F" for Farman.
Neither the navy nor the army painted these designations on the aircraft.
With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe it was decided that there was a need to paint the aircraft so they could be seen to be Swedish.
![[The naval flag]](orlogsflagga.png)
On Aug 6:th it was decided that army
aircraft, on Aug 7:th that navy
aircraft would have a national insignia consisting of
a Swedish naval three tongued flag on the rudder,
undersides of the wings a yellow circle with broad
blue outline, the letter "S" and an arabic numeral.
This last painted to be read from the wingtip towards
the fuselage.
For navy aircraft the number was also painted with small numerals on the nose.
The army numbering systems was changed so that monoplanes received odd numbers, biplanes even.
![[The 1915 national insignia]](crowns15.png)
On 1915 Sep 22 the national insignia was changed to consist
of three black crown on the wing upper and lower surfaces.
If necessary on a white field.
![[Tummelisa]](../../img/ljungbyhed96/tumli_02.jpg)
In 1915 small numbers were painted by the cockpit on the left side of the fuselage on aircraft to distinguish the aircraft on the ground.
The national insignias were changed after the pattern used by other forces in Europe and was amended to also include a position on the fuselage.
The crowns were usually painted on a white, nearly square, field, reaching to the leading and trailing edges of the wing and fuselage upper and lower sides.
The usual colour were yellow for Thulin and light blue for Farman and Lévêque aircraft.
In 1920 it was decided to paint the wing and fuselage upper surfaces dark grey, the sides and undersides light grey, struts and floats black.
A 1922 proposal was that in peace time the aircraft would be in "natural" colours with grey struts, light blue floats and black engine cowlings. Upon mobilization, the upper surfaces were to be camouflaged.
Painting instructions were various, light blue grey and yellow-green-grey, light yellow all over, aluminium, dark green and brown camouflage.
Starting in 1918 the aircraft's numeral was painted in large numerals on the fuselage, behind the national insignia.
The number was preceded by a year figure, 9 for the budget year 1919-20, 0 for 1920-21, also assigned retroactively. Fighter and single seat aircraft got odd numbers, reconnaissance and twoseaters even. To begin with the numbers were assigned chronologically, but in 1921 different number series were assigned to different types of aircraft.
![[Dront in camouflage]](../../img/fvmus96/a1_m.jpg)
In 1921 the brown, green and light grey camouflage
for combat aircraft was introduced.
>From 1924 the navy trialled alternatives, among them three black crowns on a white circle, vertical blue/yellow/blue stripes on the rudder, white crowns outlined in black and white instead of black numerals.
In 1925-26 the army tested some alternatives, including black crowns with white borders, blue/yellow/blue and blue/yellow vertical bands on the rudder.
From March 1926 new army aircraft were delivered with white crowns with black borders.
Document last updated 1999 May 07, 1999 Sep 28, 2000 Feb 01, 2000 Apr 28 by Urban
Photos used in this document are either by myself, Bernt Törnell or by various photographers and provided by Saab.
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