Last modified: 2006-07-01 by ian macdonald
Keywords: afghanistan | air force | roundel (air force) | star (red) |
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I don't know if they've changed since, but they were previously different. In my book (1967), Afghanistan roundels appear as:
David Prothero, 12 July 1997
The Afghan Air Force was officially established in 22 August 1924 in order to
be destroyed in 1929 and reformed in 1937. There are very few sources about its
roundels, with quite a lot of contradiction among them.
Dov Gutterman, 10 June 2004
Cochrane & Elliott (1998) reported the
1924-1929 roundels as a black and white arms (opposed colors to the arms on the
1919 flag) on the fuselage and rudder, while an
inscription "Allah Akhbar" was written below the wings.
Dov Gutterman, 10 June 2004
image by Frank George Valoczy, 4 July 2003
Cochrane & Elliott (1998) also reported that after reorganization in 1937 under British influence, the Afghan Air Force used a tri-color roundel (inside-out black-red-green) and fin-flash at the same order of colors. Some aircraft may have also tricolor stripes on their wings. Cochrane & Elliott (1998) showed the roundel a with thinner green circle (2:2:1). However Jane's 1945 shows the roundel as red-black-green with a thinner black stripe (2:1:2) and (inside-out) green-red-black stripes on the rudder. I couldn't find a photo from this era but, as far as I can recall, Cochrane & Elliott (1998) is the correct one.
The 1937 roundel was kept when it became the Royal Afghan Air Force in 1948
while in the 50's the rudder stripes became the fin-flash.
Dov Gutterman, 10 June 2004
This image shows the
roundel as it was used.
Dov Gutterman, 11 June 2004
image by Mark Sensen and Dov Gutterman
From Cochrane & Elliott (1998):
Mohammed Nadir Shah, the victor in the 1929 insurrection, changed Afghan colours from largely red to red, green and black, symbolizing bloodshed for independence, hope for the future and the country's dark past.A 1:1 fin flash with those colours was used as fin flash between 1937 when the Afghan Air Force was reformed and 1967.
image by Frank George Valoczy, 4 July 2003
In 1967 a new roundel was introduced, and used also as a fin flash. David
Prothero reports it as "an isosceles triangle one point at north (12 o'clock)
divided equally into black to the right, red to the bottom, and dark green to
the left. Set on a white circle, the points of the triangle not touching the
circumference."
Cochrane & Elliott (1998) showed it with red on
left, green on right and black at the bottom. They also reported Arabic letters
on the white circle (too small to identify in his image). This roundel was in
use until 1979 (even though the Shah was overthrown in 1973) and according to
Cochrane & Elliott (1998) it was re-introduced
in 1995.
The Roundels of the World website shows this
roundel (with a third possible arrangement - black on the right, green on the
left and red on the bottom), with the Arabic numbers 1,1 and 5 as the Roundel of
the Northern Alliance (and therefore also the current roundel).
Dov Gutterman, 10 June 2004
A capture from a report on "The World" on
BBC4 TV (15 June 2004) shows that this roundel appears to be in use now.
André Coutanche, 15 June 2004
image by Frank George Valoczy, 4 July 2003
In 1979 a new roundel was introduced, a red disc with yellow inscriptions or
devices. The image at
Cochrane & Elliott (1998) is quite poor, but it can be identified as the
arms on October 1978 flag. According to
Cochrane & Elliott (1998), this roundel was in use until 1983. However, those
arms were already changed on April 1980.....
Dov Gutterman, 10 June 2004
In Flaggenmitteilung no. 108 (April 1985) I found four air force roundels, including Afghanistan. It is possible these emblems changed, especially that of Afghanistan.
Mark Sensen, 10 July 1997
Cochrane & Elliott (1998) reported a new roundel and fin flash
in 1983 as a red star within a
circle of the national colours. The image is too small to identify the order
of colors. Wheeler (1986) reported this roundel as
that of the Afghan Republican Air Force since
1979 with the colors of the ring as black-red-green.
The Roundels of the World website reported the
ring as green-red black.
The Air Force Badges website shows a narrow
green-red-very narrow black set of rings.
However, from the photo at
http://www.airliners.net/photos/small/7/5/8/294857.jpg
it
seems that the black is in the outer ring and the French website image is
correct (even thou the red seems to have faded).
Dov Gutterman, 10 June 2004
image by Brent Jacobs and Santiago Dotor
The air force roundel currently being used by the loyalist Northern Alliance.
Brent Jacobs, 8 October 2001
I would like to know when did the current roundel (as used by the loyalist Northern Alliance) appear? It looks identical to the 1966 one mentioned above by David Prothero, only removing the bottom, red area of the triangle (hence leaving a spearhead shape). A detailed French television report about Cdr. Massoud (Massoud l'Afghan by Christophe de Pontilly) showed a couple of times the roundel on helicopters transporting him, but I am not sure whether the central element was a spearhead or simply a triangle (half black, half green).
Santiago Dotor, 9 October 2001