Aerial kills on World War I fighter planes

[Golden Diamonds]

Did anyone thought of painting aerial victories on their fighter planes during World War I? It suddenly occurred to me that during World War II, pilots painted their victories on their planes, but when I look at the Allied and Central Power fighter aces' fighter planes, there were no victory kills put on their aircraft.

[favedave]

I don't know of anyone painting victory icons on their planes, although I'm sure it started during the First World War along with the "Ace" rating. However, I do know that marking the bullet holes in one's plane with "Iron Cross" patches was a very common practice in the French Air Service, and may have been the genesis of the WWII tradition.

[Phaing]

I thought they did have numbers on the planes, someone did, but it was a counter for how many missions the plane had survived. Or is that not a thing?

It did seem to emphasize how risky the simple act of flying was back then.

[Sheldrake]

The cult of the ace was new. The air arms did not necessarily expect or welcome the personality cult that arose from the ace phenomenon. Painting a score on an aircraft was not an official marking, but personal.

Many of the customs that we have accepted as "normal" may have been influenced by film and magazine reports - a bit like an internet meme. E.g. The media images of sharkmouths on P40s and Me110s may have encouraged others to copy the idea, or at the very least undermined attempts to enforce uniformity.

Some pilots did maintain trophies. Manfred von Richtofen had a silver cup struck for each kill. Others did not.

Where exactly would an ace paint victories on a WW1 aircraft? The skin was fabric and might need to be replaced occasionally. It also supposes that the airman flies the same aircraft every flight. In some air arms it might have been seen as tempting fate or arrogance.