# Shiny military aircraft from the 50's question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shiny-military-aircraft-from-the-50s-question/209657 "2003-10-26T14:33:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shiny-military-aircraft-from-the-50s-question/209657/21 "2003-10-27T14:19:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JXJohns \* > \*\*My Grandfather flew a B-24 bomber in North Africa during WW2. They painted them a very light shade of pink. No joke… \*\* Here’s an example: [http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/air\_power/ap8.htm](http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/air_power/ap8.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shiny-military-aircraft-from-the-50s-question/209657/22 "2003-10-27T17:55:42Z")
IIRC, **David Simmons** ’ ride was a B-26. British commandos in North Africa in WWII used pink Land Rovers (at least I _think_ they were Land Rovers). ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shiny-military-aircraft-from-the-50s-question/209657/23 "2003-10-27T18:12:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\*In WWII bombers were painted medium grey on the undersides and olive green on the upper surfaces. It was found that there was a significant speed increase when the heavy paint was left off. With their contrails making a “pointer” right to the aircraft, it didn’t make a lot of sense to camouflage them (they’d be picked up on radar in any case); and the speed increase was desireable. So they stopped painting the bombers later in the war. (You’ll also note that USAAF fighters were also left unpainted.) \*\* I have to admit I’m surprised by this. How much does the paint job on a B-52 weigh, that it would actually slow the plane down to a noticable degree? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shiny-military-aircraft-from-the-50s-question/209657/24 "2003-10-27T18:14:10Z")
A relative of mine flew B-24’s out of Italy. He tells me that the planes came from the States painted brown early in the war, but were left bare later on. The paint weighed 300 pounds that just didn’t need to be carried. Besides, the life expectancy of a bomber in combat was about 3 weeks on average, he says, so corrosion protection just wasn’t an issue. Lack of paint on an airliner serves not only that function, but improves inspectability - cracks can hide under paint. Silver airliners don’t necessarily have painted stripes or logos - they are often die-cut stickers that can be quickly peeled back for inspections and just as quickly replaced. I understand Boeing specifies the direction of the final polishing pass on exterior parts it buys, to keep a uniform appearance for those of its customers who leave their planes silver. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shiny-military-aircraft-from-the-50s-question/209657/25 "2003-10-27T20:05:05Z")
Camouflage on airplanes helps make them harder to see - blue or grey hides them from the ground or lower aircraft, brown/green/blue hides them from above or when on the ground. The actual colours and patterns used vary depending on local conditions (e.g. deep blue undersides are better in the tropics, grey in northern Europe) and amount of effort that air forces were willing to put into maintaining complex paint patterns. However, the paint slows the aircraft down, due to a rougher surface than bare metal (smooth paint is shiny and not much better than no paint for camouflage), and adds weight. With early aircraft, this didn’t matter much, you HAD to paint them to protect the wood, steel and fabric structure from the elements, so using a camouflage colour instead of some other colour was no big deal. By the last year of WW2, however, aluminum was the norm for aircraft structures, and didn’t need (much) protection. Throw in a tactical situation where it didn’t matter whether the other guys saw you or not, since the Allies’ near-total air superiority kept them from doing much about it, and the disadvantages of painting the aircraft outweighed the advantages and they stopped doing it. The US started painting planes again when the tactical situation changed to make it worthwhile again. The development of better anti-aircraft weapons allied to the recognition of the need for more “close to the ground” kinds of missions was one factor. Naval aircraft are almost always painted, to help control the corrosion problems caused by operating in a salt water environment. Airlines paint their planes for advertising and customer appeal, factors which significantly outweigh the disadvantages from their point of view. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shiny-military-aircraft-from-the-50s-question/209657.md?page=1)