Stephen Harding wrote:


It surprised me too. The source for this is the New England Air
Museum which had a photograph of a red star marked US plane and
an info card stating this was the national marking for a brief
time. I checked their page and a general Google search and can't
find any more about this, but the source and photo was definitely
seen during my last visit to NEAM a few years ago.


The USAF museum confirms the 1916 red star:

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/insignia.htm


Andreas