This piece originally ran in the August 2025 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
This piece of fabric was salvaged from a downed German aircraft from World War I. Measuring 13 inches by 15 inches, this is a remarkable example of original Lozenge fabric that the Germans first started using in mid-1916. The yellow, green, purple, and navy-blue polygons were preprinted on the fabric, which was then applied to the aircraft. One of the main reasons for preprinting the color on the fabric was to reduce weight, as painted wings used dopes that added weight. The camouflage itself came in many variations, with different colors being used for the upper and lower surfaces of the aircraft, as well as darker versions that were applied to aircraft that were meant to fly at night. Based on the colors of this piece of fabric, it appears to be from the upper surface of the aircraft; though since the Germans used this camo on multiple types of aircraft, there’s no way of telling with certainty which type it is from.