Most Visible Color for Aircraft

Saryon wrote in message . ..
On 07 Mar 2004 15:14:08 GMT, (Teacherjh)
wrote:

What are "invasion stripes"?

I could be wrong but I believe it's the set of black-white-black
stripes painted on Allied aircraft towards D-Day in WWII. If it is
what I'm thinking http://www.airliners.net/open.file/506614/M/ might
be a decent picture.

Those indeed are invasion stripes. Invasion stripes are black & white
stripes painted (in some cases hastily) parallel to the chordline on
Allied aircraft before the June 1944 invasion of Normandy. The intent
was to allow the easy rapid recoginition of Allied aircraft and keep
them from being shot down by their own side.

Blue skies at all

John

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)

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

the Navy had repainted their training fleet to
the current color scheme, white and red. This is of course the same
as that used by the Coast Guard and has lasted for 45 years.

Right, and fire engines used to be red but now are yellow.

Perhaps because the navy and the Coasties can ensure that their
population doesn't include color-blind, while the population at large
cannot?

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (requires authentication)

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

A study within the military showed that the most visible color for
identifying the shape of a plane against any background, is a solid, dark
blue...

During WWII the RAF painted its photo-recce planes dark blue so they
couldn't be seen.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (requires authentication)

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

What are "invasion stripes"?

Jose

In a vain attempt to prevent Allied seamen from shooting down Allied
aircraft, all planes going to France on June 6, 1944, were painted
with white tempera stripes on the wings, above and below.

All the women paint manufacturers in Britain worked through their
Whitsun weekend to make the paint, and it was put on the planes
overnight on June 5-6.

See for example
http://www.maxwell.af.mil/au/afhra/w...on_Stripes.htm

It washed off after a few weeks or months, but is still very popular
for L-4s.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (requires authentication)

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

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.....

Cub Driver wrote:

During WWII the RAF painted its photo-recce planes dark blue so they
couldn't be seen.

First off, it's sort of an electric robin's egg blue - not very dark, and
secondly, very few of us are flying at 40,000'.

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

"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.

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.