[Coopdevil]

Doing some photo research for my Cunningham I've noticed that nearly every car at Le Mans during the 1950s seemed to have a French Air Force-type roundel on it towards the middle of the body. What was the significance of this?

Coop

 

[cruizbz]

QUOTE (Coopdevil @ 18 Dec 2004, 14:43)Doing some photo research for my Cunningham I've noticed that nearly every car at Le Mans during the 1950s seemed to have a French Air Force-type roundel on it towards the middle of the body. What was the significance of this?

Coop
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Military research by the French, seeking a faster form of retreat? I wager their little arms were tired from waving white flags the first 50 years of the century.

 

[Larsson]

cruizbz...time for you to take a history lesson! Hmm on second thought,
when you're at it... take two.

Eric

 

[greenman62]

QUOTE (Coopdevil @ 18 Dec 2004, 14:43)Doing some photo research for my Cunningham I've noticed that nearly every car at Le Mans during the 1950s seemed to have a French Air Force-type roundel on it towards the middle of the body. What was the significance of this?

Coop
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm gonna take a stab at this one. Now keep in mind it's only a SWAG... I think it might predate WWII and perhaps relates to the all volunteer Flying squadron of Americans from WWI the "Lafayette Esquadrille?" I believe their Motto was: "Lafayette, we are here..."

Greenman 62

 

[Larsson]

Greenman 62...
Thats right...

They were American fighter pilots that flew under the French flag. In a way they were mercenaries. Other elite units are/were, to name a few...: Wild Geese, French Foreign Legion, Lincoln Brigade, S.S. Division 'Prinz Eugen' and Flying Tigers.

 

[TSRF]

And don't forget the Normandy-Niemen squadron, flying P39 Airacobras over Sovietland.

 

[Coopdevil]

I'm not sure about all that actually (well I did know of US pilots in French service prior to 1918 and the Hell Angels in Nationalist China and my grandfather flew alongside American pilots in the RAF in 1940) as I've seen the roundels on Le Mans cars that aren't French or American. I say they are French Air Force roundels since that is what they look like and I know people on the board would recognise them. Perhaps they were just class markings or similar?

Coop