Royal Air Force Tartan

[cessna152towser]

Would you be kind enough to review how to get "authorized" for the tartan. Sounds like we're both son's of RAF pilots.

Or can my kiltmaker just order it up from the mill??

I contacted Flt. Lt. Arthur Mackie who is named on the site which I linked to and explained that my father was an ex-RAF airman and that although I had been a cadet in the Air Training Corps (the youth volunteer section of the RAF), I did not subsequently gain acceptance into the full-time RAF service, and enquired as to my entitlement to wear this tartan. He replied that he would be happy to make me a kilt in RAF tartan. So I'd assume that as the son of a RAF pilot you'd also be entitled to wear it. Especially as your dad flew Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. My father was an airman, not a pilot. In other words he serviced the aeroplanes and engines. He was based in Canada with 36SFTS (Special Flying Training School) at Gananoque Ontario and Penhold Alberta till 1943 when he sustained a head injury in the course of duty and after a period in the sick bay he was shipped back to Scotland and served with 57MU (Maintenance Unit) from '43 till '46 on the Solway Firth, servicing the flying boats in Wig Bay and land based aircraft at Castle Kennedy airfield where he was based, hence my active involvement with Solway Aviation Museum at Carlisle Airport and visits to Castle Kennedy in light aircraft.

Flt. Lt. Arthur Mackie seems to have some sort of a connection with the Strathmore Woollen Company Limited who supply the fabric. I think he is a retired RAF pilot and later an adult instructor with the Air Training Corps. He or his wife will be making my kilt for me.

With regard to Barb's helpful comments, the white stripe occurs at intervals of six and a half inches while the red stripe repeats just under six inches apart, with two thinner red stripes midway between each red stripe. I will be posting my order today and will ask Flt. Lt. Mackie's advice as to whether the kilt would look best pleated to the stripe or to the sett.

He offers a delivery time of three to four weeks.

I think this tartan will look good with lovatt blue hose.