Royal Flying Corps air drop message streamer

[Jerry B]

100% WW1 item in standard colours for the time.

Read this for more info, it's illuminating.

Aeroplane Message, "La Folie Farme" 1918 - The war in the air - Great War Forum

Thanks Ned. I noticed you looking at the thread earlier and I thought you would come up with the goods.

[Jerry B]

Here are two in the Imperial war museum collection.

Streamer, Message (British) | Imperial War Museumshttp://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30017986

[diver99]

I like it,very unusual.I would suggest however that i would have thought a WW1 period item would have been more likely to have had a button to close the pouch with,so i would go with your idea that it is 1920's/30's.

1920/30's is a good assumption. I have seen one at the tank museum bovington, they were used to drop messages to tanks before effective radio comms. Check with them with re stamps on the border

[Jerry B]

1920/30's is a good assumption. I have seen one at the tank museum bovington, they were used to drop messages to tanks before effective radio comms. Check with them with re stamps on the border

Hi,

If you check the link posted by Ned to the Great War Forum (post#10) and the links I posted to the Imperial War Museum collections (post#12) you will find it is 100% the same as those used by the RFC during the First World War, though as I suggested they might have continued to use them post war and further research shows they did use them later, but how you tell early ones from later ones, I don't know.

[Jerry B]

I noticed another example for sale on Ebay and I am surprised to see how expensive it is, though to be fair this example has the weight and a message.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1109661623...84.m1423.l2649

[Jerry B]

Finished on £288.60. Wow.

[Allegra]

Jerry - I know that you asked about this in a couple of Forums - been looking for some answers. I know they were used post-WW1. I've seen stitching in black, blue and white. I have the chance to purchase one. Do the weights all come in one size/shape?

Was there ever a definitive answer on weights and stitching colour?

I'm having the Devil's own job trying ascertain WW1 - and 'Yes' I've looked at the links!

Cheers
Tim

[Edit: And yes, I know it is an old thread ]

[Jerry B]

Hi Tim,

As far as I could ever ascertain, there is no certain way of dating these and any variations might be down to manufacturers variations, though button closing versions might be earlier than those that use poppers, but this is an assumption.

I would assume that the weights are roughly of a standard size, but this is again only an assumption.

[Allegra]

Hi Jerry - many thanks for the reply.

The picture below is the one I'm looking at. Opinions? (I'm really not at all sure).

I've asked for a couple of more pictures.

It looks similar to this one at the IWM (at least to me ):
Streamer Message British (FLA 394)

Cheers
Tim

[StefanM]

Have you tried contacting the RAF museum archive at Hendon, they have been extremely helpful to me in the past?