North American F-100 Super Sabre silhouette

Aircraft recognition is a visual skill taught to military personnel and civilian auxiliaries since the introduction of

military aircraft A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat: * Combat aircraft are designed to destroy enemy equipm ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It is important for

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

and

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

gathering. Aircraft recognition generally depends on learning the external appearance of the aircraft, both friendly and hostile, most likely to be encountered. Techniques used to teach this information have included

scale model A scale model is a physical model which is geometrically similar to an object (known as the prototype). Scale models are generally smaller than large prototypes such as vehicles, buildings, or people; but may be larger than small prototypes ...

s, printed

silhouette A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...

charts,

slide projector A slide projector is an opto-mechanical device for showing photographic slides. 35 mm slide projectors, direct descendants of the larger-format magic lantern, first came into widespread use during the 1950s as a form of occasional home ...

computer aided instruction Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refe ...

and even specially-printed

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...

Early development of skills

In the United Kingdom, The

Royal Observer Corps The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December ...

(ROC) was formed as a defence warning organisation with civilians trained in aircraft recognition and operated primarily as such between 1925 and 1957. Aircraft recognition was first developed between the First and Second World wars when aerial warfare was first recognised as a future threat, after 208 Zeppelin and 435 aircraft raids over London during the First World War. In 1917 Germany had started using fixed-wing bombers, and the number of airship raids diminished rapidly. To answer this new threat, Major General Edward Bailey Ashmore, a First World War pilot who had later been in command of an artillery division in Belgium, was appointed to devise improved systems of detection, communication and control. The Metropolitan Observation Service was created, covering the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

area, known as the London Air Defence Area, and was soon extended to the coasts of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. This led to the establishment of the Observer Corps in 1925. Skywatch

It was the creed of the British

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence * Dep ...

and the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

, at the start of the war, that accurate recognition of high-flying and fast-moving aircraft was not possible. The sparetime volunteers of the Observer Corps disagreed and between 1938 and 1939 they started developing the skills and training materials to achieve it, on an unofficial basis. Local units began to band together and form spotting clubs caller ''Hearker clubs'' that eventually combined in April 1941 as ''The Royal Observer Corps Club'' and prepared early aircraft type silhouette cards for both allied and German types, mostly made by tracing photographs from ''The Aeroplane'' magazine, with some made by enlarging silhouettes from commercially produced 1930s cigarette card sets. Technical editor of ''The Aeroplane'', Peter Masefield, who was also a member of the Corps, travelled the length of Britain giving lectures and training sessions. The club also produced a fortnightly magazine, ''The Aeroplane Spotter'', with the help of ''The Aeroplane'' 's printers, that was eventually distributed to every unit in the Corps. Large wall posters were produced that showed every known type of aircraft. The WEFT (Wingshape, Engine configuration, Fuselage shape and Tail type) system of recognition was first developed by Chief Observer C.H. Gibbs-Smith of Watford Group's Delta 3 post and a member of ''Hearker Club No. 3''. Recognition competitions were organised locally, regionally and nationally and by the start of World War II the Corps had trained nearly 30,000 volunteers to accurately recognise all types of current aircraft. The unofficial ''Aeroplane Spotter'' magazine was later renamed as ''The Journal of the Royal Observer Corps Club'' before being adopted as an official publication and renamed as ''The Royal Observer Corps Journal'' published by

HMSO The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is the body responsible for the operation of His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) and of other public information services of the United Kingdom. The OPSI is part of the National Archives of the Un ...

and distributed to every observer at a price of one shilling (5 new pence). In April 1942 the club initiated recognition proficiency tests, later adopted officially by the ROC, with three levels: * 3rd Class level (later renamed Basic level) – 50% correct * 2nd Class level (later renamed Intermediate level) – 70% correct * 1st Class level (later renamed Master level) – 90% or more correct In September 1942 the government recognised the usefulness and effectiveness of the systems developed by the sparetime observers and first published '' Aircraft Recognition: The Inter-services Recognition Journal'' with early content copied from previous editions of ''Aeroplane Spotter'' and ''The Royal Observer Corps Journal''. Featured tests included ''Airborne Headaches'' and ''Amuse and Confuse''. With official recognition by HQ Royal Observer Corps and the Air Ministry that accurate recognition of aircraft was achievable, the systems developed by the volunteers were adopted as official training. The Royal Observer Corps Club disbanded in the Autumn of 1942. In December 1943 the annual Master Test of aircraft recognition was introduced as a compulsory test for all observers and a basic level pass was mandatory for continued membership of the ROC. In the first year those observers who had achieved a club pass at 3rd class level were declared exempt from the basic test requirement. The Royal Observer Corps established an annual four-man recognition team, with keen competition amongst observers for selection. The team continued to compete annually in the UK's ''Joint Services Aircraft Recognition Competition'' and in international competitions with other NATO countries until 1991, despite aircraft recognition being dropped as an operational role for the Corps in 1957. There was also a hard-fought annual competition with the Luftmeldekorpsett, the Danish Ground Observer Corps.

Aircraft recognition in the United States

In the US during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, civilians were enlisted into a

Ground Observer Corps The Ground Observer Corps (GOC), sometimes erroneously referred to as the Ground ''Observation'' Corps, was the name of two American civil defense organizations during the middle 20th century. World War II organization The first Ground Observer ...

to support air defense operations, receiving training in aircraft identification. The US military continues to use "WEFT" as a mnemonic for the major features of an aircraft: Wings or rotors to provide lift, Engines to provide power, a Fuselage to carry the payload and pilot, and a Tail assembly which controls the direction of flight. These elements differ in shape, size, number, and position. The differences distinguish one aircraft type from another. The individual components can be taught as separate recognition and identification features, but it is the composite of these features that must be learned to recognize and identify an aircraft.

Aircraft recognition as a pastoral pursuit

As well as military and ROC use of aircraft recognition, the civilian population in Great Britain, in particular, have also used aircraft recognition for entertainment. Competitions have been run, notably by

Air-Britain Air-Britain, traditionally sub-titled "The International Association of Aviation Enthusiasts", is a non-profit aviation society founded in July 1948. As from 2015, it is constituted as a British charitable trust and book publisher. History Air-Brit ...

, for all-comers to take part in, where images of aircraft are displayed for a limited amount of time for competitors to identify, with a short time limit between images and no repeat showings. Competitors have ranged from civilians,

Air Training Corps The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British volunteer-military youth organisation. They are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Air Force. The majority of staff are volunteers, and some are paid for full-time work – including C ...

, ROC and military personnel.

References

Notes

Bibliography

U.S. WWII Newsmap, "Wing Engine Fuselage Tail, WEFT is a system for aircraft recognition"
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* * * * * – U.S. Army aircraft recognition manual