Most Visible Color for Aircraft

After thinking about I would go with the alternating Coast Guard red, black
(on the bottom) white (on the top), and neon/dayglow yellow (the color of
the traffic safety signs in CA). Now mind you I wouldn't want to look at it
with out sunglasses on (or look at it at all really) but I really think it
would be hard to miss.


wrote in message
...
Howdy,

I've been looking all over, and I can't seem to find any discussions on
the
relative visibility of various colors for aircraft. I would guess that
the
best color might be different when viewed against the sky or the ground.

Any pointers will be welcome,
tom pettit

I read somewhere that the standard camouflage (splotches of various greens) was
not as effective at hiding things as random sharp edges of contrasty colors.
It's anti-intuitive, and I don't have a picture of it, but maybe somebody else
remembers.

Memory is the second thing to go.

Jose


--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

Teacherjh wrote:

I read somewhere that the standard camouflage (splotches of various greens) was
not as effective at hiding things as random sharp edges of contrasty colors.
It's anti-intuitive, and I don't have a picture of it, but maybe somebody else
remembers.

The eye tends to blend contrasting colors (eg. red and green) to brown. That
would be a good camouflage over a brown background.

George Patterson
Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would
not yield to the tongue.

(Teacherjh) wrote in message ...
I read somewhere that the standard camouflage (splotches of various greens) was
not as effective at hiding things as random sharp edges of contrasty colors.
It's anti-intuitive, and I don't have a picture of it, but maybe somebody else
remembers.

The Royal Navy used that method for ships. The random patterns and
contrasting colors made it difficult to identify a ship's type, speed
and course from a distance. I don't know if the same thing would
work on aircraft.

Here's an example of some schemes used in WWII :

http://www.steelnavy.com/images/WR_RN_CAMO2/sample2.jpg

These are pretty mild compared to some of the others I've seen (i.e.
black on white rectangles, triangles and big red circles).

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

On Mon, 8 Mar 2004, John Galban wrote:

(Teacherjh) wrote in message ...
I read somewhere that the standard camouflage (splotches of various greens) was
not as effective at hiding things as random sharp edges of contrasty colors.
It's anti-intuitive, and I don't have a picture of it, but maybe somebody else
remembers.

The Royal Navy used that method for ships. The random patterns and
contrasting colors made it difficult to identify a ship's type, speed
and course from a distance. I don't know if the same thing would
work on aircraft.

Well, the Czech Air Force tried something related on at least one Mig21:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/469919/M/

Pretty cool paint scheme, but I'm not sure how useful it would be as
actual camo while airborne.

Brian.

"Bill A." wrote:

After thinking about I would go with the alternating Coast Guard red, black
(on the bottom) white (on the top), and neon/dayglow yellow (the color of
the traffic safety signs in CA). Now mind you I wouldn't want to look at it
with out sunglasses on (or look at it at all really) but I really think it
would be hard to miss.

I would think you'd need ANR headsets rather than sunglasses. :-)

George Patterson
Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would
not yield to the tongue.

I read where they did a study that the best camo against the sky (opposite
of your question) was a powder pink. Course, the military opted for the
second best, gray. I don't know that an F-15 fully armed and painted pink
instills much fear.


wrote in message
...
Howdy,

I've been looking all over, and I can't seem to find any discussions on
the
relative visibility of various colors for aircraft. I would guess that
the
best color might be different when viewed against the sky or the ground.

Any pointers will be welcome,
tom pettit

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 16:07:19 -0600, "Jeff Franks"
wrote:

I read where they did a study that the best camo against the sky (opposite
of your question) was a powder pink. Course, the military opted for the
second best, gray. I don't know that an F-15 fully armed and painted pink
instills much fear.

I dunno, it would take a brave man.....

Jeff Franks wrote:

I read where they did a study that the best camo against the sky (opposite
of your question) was a powder pink. Course, the military opted for the
second best, gray.

I tend to doubt that. The U.S. military did not hesitate to fly pink aircraft out
of North Africa in WW II. The color worked well against the sand of Tunisia; not
so well against the skies of Italy and Rumania.

I don't know that an F-15 fully armed and painted pink instills much fear.

Well, if you aren't scared of it and need to be, you die. Doesn't matter what
color it is.

George Patterson
Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would
not yield to the tongue.

Several British spitfire photo recon aircraft were pink in WW2.

However this was not to make them dificult to see, but to make the German AA
gunners laugh so much they couldn't shoot straight!

Hope this helps,
Peter


I read where they did a study that the best camo against the sky (opposite
of your question) was a powder pink. Course, the military opted for the
second best, gray. I don't know that an F-15 fully armed and painted pink
instills much fear.