On 03 Aug 2003 05:18:46 GMT, cal (BD5ER) wrote:

The aircraft is a composite Lancair 360.

Looks like you should stick to the light colors, white, yellow, silver etc, and
keep the dark trim colors to a minimum.

I once took one of those infrared heat guns with me to the auto auction (1000+
vehicles) on a wind free day. While there can be some error with the IR units
I did come up with some real surprises - like silvers that get WAY hotter than
you would expect and some rather dark colors that weren't that bad. I suspect
there is more to how hot the paint gets than just the color, like the kind of
flake, pearl, or even the clear coat.

White is boreing, but it's the only fool-proof color I know to paint a
composite plane.

I saw some figures once from the world of architecture. it showed that
the infra red transmissibility performance of paints was considerably
different from the apparent colour.
since the thermal end of the spectrum is IR it would pay to do some
objective testing of the paints in that spectrum area before settling
on the favourite colour.
sorry but this was 20 years ago and I dont have access to the
publication. I can verify the veracity of your comments though.
Stealth Pilot
Australia