Well, we had some Russian diplomats visiting the base, right near the end of the cold war, and were under very strict instructions not to talk to them or tell them anything, since we were no more than apprentices at the time. However, we, as a bunch of teenagers, thought we really ought to greet them in some manner.
Now, the thing about working with aircraft is that you avoid electric tools, there are a lot of flammable liquids involved, so, most tools at the time were powered by a high pressure air-hose system, and we often used bright yellow marigold gloves when handling some of those liquids, since they were less prone to splitting than surgical gloves. This formed the basis of our idea...
Come the day of the visit, a bunch of very stone-faced, serious Russian diplomats were touring the airbase in staff cars, they rounded the corner of 'Q Shed', which was the training shed, only to be faced by, sticking out of the second floor window, an enormous Marigold glove, inflated to about 40-50 times it's normal size, gently waving at them in the wind.
We got into
so much trouble for that....
