Why are targets painted on foreign planes?

Question

Why are targets painted on foreign planes?

Answer 1

they aren't foreign to me.

it says there, shoot here in case plane lose control

Answer 2

Sorry to say mindworm, but this time you are wrong.

Willbooth is exactly right saying that they are roundels, or as they were known in the past as "Rondels"

Answer 3

it is a sign of there air force   they occur on the spitfires from britain

Answer 4

They are on British Spitfires, dont know why or who thought that was a good idea

Answer 5

so they can be aimed at by you and be burnt with a flaming arrows  i thank you for helping me express my opinion

Answer 6

is it because thats where you shoot them??

Answer 7

They arn't targets there roundels. The RAF, French air force, spanish airforce, swiss airforce, italian air force, australian air force and a few others all have roundels. The French started out with them first (red, white and a blue dot in the centre) as it is also the colour of their national flag. The British later did the same (blue, white and a red dot) and other countries followed.  However there are different roundels, especially in the RAF.

The RAF uses different forms of roundel depending on the paint or camo scheme of an aircraft in most cases. A dark coloured plane, would have a yellow circle, then blue, then white, then a large red dot in the middle. An example would be the roundel on the fuselage of a lancaster which is black as the lancaster was often used as a night bomber and black was a form of camoflage. Lighter coloured aircraft would have the normal blue, white and red.

It sounds complicated but have a read for yourself on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_roundel

There is also info on fin flashes with some very good photos. Hope this has been helpful.

Answer 8

they are no targets, the circles are called by the french word cocarde, and are the symbols of the nationality of the plane, like the US planes have the US flag on them or the star in the circle with the two rectangles extending sideways. so the British have red dot white circle blue circle, french have blue dot white circle, red circle, etc etc. Belgium has red dot yellow cirlce and black outer cirlce i believe,

German luftwaffe uses a version of a cross, different from the WWII Luftwaffe. that could resemble target, too. Portugese air force uses a red cross variant /not the swiss one!/ swiss air force uses the white cross in the red background /it was the parent of the red cross sign/