# To what extent are military planes designed to "look cool"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 13, 2018, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-are-military-planes-designed-to-look-cool/810464 "2018-03-13T01:06:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-are-military-planes-designed-to-look-cool/810464/81 "2018-03-23T21:37:53Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > saweet, is there an english dub of that show Yep, a five-episode anime series with English dubbing has been available for some time now, you should be able to pick it up fairly cheaply from Amazon. Wikipedia also has a page on it, if you want to check it out before parting with your cash. Its actually based on a trilogy of books from the author Chōhei Kambayashi, which are surprisingly thought-provoking and readable for military science-fiction. The third book has yet to be translated into English though. There was talk about five years ago of Tom Cruise adapting it to the big screen but that seems to have fallen by the wayside, a pity because like or loath him he does very good science-fiction movies. On a side-note as fun as the anime is I kept wanting to give the main character a good shake, he’s a lot more lively and likable in the books. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-are-military-planes-designed-to-look-cool/810464/82 "2018-03-23T21:57:43Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > To no extent. > They are designed to function, in a very demanding way. > > Besides–why would anybody care? Apparently they do. The original stealth fighter was apparently painted an ugly shade of light blue because, it turns out, that is harder to see than a black plane in the dark not to mention daylight. Some air force bigwigs decided it just wasn’t cool enough for that plane so they painted it black (which isn’t bad…just not as stealthy as the blue was). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-are-military-planes-designed-to-look-cool/810464/83 "2018-03-24T14:27:28Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > …The original stealth fighter was apparently painted an ugly shade of light blue because, it turns out, that is harder to see than a black plane in the dark not to mention daylight. > > Some air force bigwigs decided it just wasn’t cool enough for that plane so they painted it black (which isn’t bad…just not as stealthy as the blue was). See post 44. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-are-military-planes-designed-to-look-cool/810464/84 "2018-03-28T14:36:12Z")
A nice low-level flyby of a Vulcan bomber: [Vulcan Bomber stuns beach-goers with a low fly by. - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAoLJkiRuGY) ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-are-military-planes-designed-to-look-cool/810464/85 "2018-03-28T14:48:24Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > A nice low-level flyby of a Vulcan bomber: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAoLJkiRuGY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAoLJkiRuGY) Very cool, thank you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-what-extent-are-military-planes-designed-to-look-cool/810464.md?page=4)