VIDEO: New Typhoon jet with D-Day tribute paint scheme unveiled

After three years of wowing the crowds of airshows across the UK and Europe, the Typhoon Display Team is bidding farewell to the 'BlackJack' Typhoon and unveiled its successor today (Monday), after more than six months of careful and secretive planning.

The new, as yet un-named Typhoon ZJ913, has been given a completely different paint scheme, which was completed by Serco, to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

The inspiration was to pay tribute to the RAF Hawker Typhoon, which was flown on D-Day by 257 Sqn and where the modern Typhoon takes its name from. The Hawker’s original paint scheme has been replicated, with a few minor tweaks, onto the Display Team’s new aircraft.

The Typhoon FGR.Mk4 is described as a “highly capable and extremely agile multi-role combat aircraft”, and can be deployed for a full spectrum of air operations, including air policing, peace support, and high-intensity conflict.

The new Typhoon will be flown for the first time after she is weighed following the new paint scheme, and it is hoped that the first public display will be the Midlands Air Festival on May 31.

This year’s display pilot, Flight Lieutenant David 'Turbo' Turnbull, said: “This is massive, it's a new paint scheme for us which is awesome, but what it represents has a much deeper meaning for me.

"It’s painted as D-Day aircraft Hawker Typhoon that helped clear beach heads during D day and this paint scheme represents the sacrifice they made on that day to make the future safer for all of us.”

The aircraft’s lettering, FMG, was painted on as a tribute to the last pilot who flew Hawker Typhoon with FMG painted on the side, Pilot Officer Denzil Jenkins, who joined 257 Sqn as a flight sergeant and after a meteoric rise through the ranks, took over command of 257 Sqn. He survived the war and became a celebrated racehorse trainer.

Readers will also see the new Typhoon has black and white painted stripes on the wings, known as invasion or D-Day stripes, with a yellow leading edge, which were hastily applied to the aircraft so forces on land could tell that these were friendly forces and not German aircraft.

The yellow leading edge stripes were painted so that aircraft in the sky would know that these were Allied troops, rather than German, which were applied to the paint scheme to make the look as accurate as possible to the Typhoon’s historic counterparts.

Flt Lt Nina Wilkinson, manager of the Typhoon Display Team, said: "Its really exciting, we’re really lucky to have new jet for 2024,” she said, “It’s a huge moment for team as its been months and months of hard work for the team – keeping it a secret and different engineering coming together to do paint scheme having to take certain parts of the aircraft apart, which has relied on a whole team of engineers from 29 Sqn and been a lot of hard work, so it’s a really proud day for us all.”

"We’re really pleased we’ve got the yellow leading edge as we’ve got this as accurate as we could.”

The eye-catching RAF roundels on the jet was painted freehand using a compass, and Andy Taylor of Serco's Tech 2 Surface Finish team said that they painting process was quite challenging as there were many colours involved, and a mixture of green and grey to achieve the correct camoflage colour.

"It’s been a long, slow process and we had to reapply the paint several times, especially as the yellow is quite transparent, but we’re really proud of the outcome and it’s amazing to see it here today.”

Performance wise, the new Typhoon will be the same as BlackJack, but her new look will, Turbo said, hopefully remind people who see her at upcoming airshows of the sacrifices made during the war:

"Blackjack was flying the flag for us and was awesome to look at, but this one is going back to historical roots and is more sentimental, but looks equally as awesome and will wow the crowds this year,” he said, "It will be amazing for country and crowds to see this, hopefully it does its job.

“It's a long time since 1944, but there are still some veterans alive and the idea that they will see this means the world to me.”

Turbo said that he will be having his first flight in the new Typhoon next week, something he described as a “dream come true”.

As for BlackJack, she will still be able to be seen in near future, but will be retired completely from service soon.