Some of the SAAF's SE5a colour schemes.

SESa SAAF during, Mid 1920s

304 and 307 had overall silver doped finishes, apart from shiny black metal nose panels as shown. The windscreen fairing, door below the headrest, all struts, stripe on the fuselage, serial number and the strip on the trailing edge of the fin were also black. There was a cylindrical canister in a dark colour on the inside of the front starboard undercarriage leg, probably for producing smoke. The four coloured roundel was painted in the usual six RAF positions. The propeller was doped white and all photographs show these aircraft as clean and shiny.

SE5a Serial Number F-7783 SAAF

This aircraft was assembled and flown from September 1922. It had PC10 on the fuselage and all upper surfaces. The four-coloured roundels were in six positions, those on the top wing probably outlined in white. These roundels were used from December 1921 to 1929 and were a modification of the original British roundels.

The propeller is doped white and there are two light coloured stripes on the rear fuselage - it could also be blue, but on the other hand, could as well be white. The fuselage serial is outlined in white and so is the rudder serial apart from the sevens, even though they are on dark colours. The second seven and the eight on the fuselage serial may be blue. Note the differing styles of serial numbers. The under surface of the wings and tail planes are clear doped. The entire undercarriage is doped white, possibly silver. There is no armament fitted, but the rear mounting for the Lewis gun is visible above the wing.

SE5a SAAF, late 1920s

Overall bright silver dope with black struts, radiator panels, numbers and windscreen frame. Thin black line of rear edge of fin. Roundels above top wing and below lower wing are orange, white, ultramarine and bright blue. The propeller has white dope centre and probably natural wood tips. Only Vickers gun fitted.

Following photos of the restored SE5a at the South African Museum of Military History in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, South Africa. The restoration is a magnificent achievement and the photos shows how much work and attention to detail has been paid by the Museum staff. As the true identity of the airframe cannot be established, the opportunity was taken to use a colour scheme of an 84 Squadron aircraft in 1918, reputedly an aircraft flown by Captain A W Beauchamp-Proctor VC, DSO, MC, DFC. It does have airfoil section rigging! These photos originally appeared in Windsock Magazine - used with kind permission from the publishers.