Why did aircraft color change over the decades?

[Mohmar Deathstrike]

In the 50s and 60s, most aircraft (military and civilian) were painted with a shining silvery color. Now, military ones are often painted a non-shiny non-silvery gray and civilian ones all kinds of colors.

Was this a fashion thing or was there a specific reason they were painted silver (which seems to be inadequate for military planes, as they don't really want to be seen

 

[Fox]

F/A-18 Superhornet or any US Navy planes have a silvery color

 

[Maytime]

They are silver-grey, but not shiny and reflective like the planes in the 50s. I can only speculate on the reason why they were shiny at first, perhaps to appear bigger and more aggressive.

 

[Easy-8]

probably because shiny aircraft are soooo 50s/60s. :wink:

 

[c/Commander]

Camouflage - gray is a lot harder to spot against cloud cover than totally reflective bare metal.

 

[LeEnfield]

Many of the dark colours are radar absorbent

 

[Mohmar Deathstrike]

F/A-18 Superhornet or any US Navy planes have a silvery color

Yeh, but as Marinehordes said, not as shiny. Also, a lot of planes are also green, or have desert camo.

probably because shiny aircraft are soooo 50s/60s. :wink:

Totally.

Camouflage - gray is a lot harder to spot against cloud cover than totally reflective bare metal.

Exactly. Did they not realize that back then?

 

[mmarsh]

As C/O commander stated its for camoflage.

I think the reason is that there have been several different schools of thought over the decades of which colors and which patterns provide the best cover. If you look at WWII camo patterns changed constantly...

 

[major liability]

I like the Hind's camo, light grey/blue on the bottom and desert camo on the sides, makes perfect sense in Afghanistan.

 

[theannoyingnoob]

Exactly. Did they not realize that back then?

Like mmarsh said, camo changed a lot over World War II. By the end of the war, actually, the Allies had stopped bothering to even camoflage their planes, which is why you see those nice silvery P-51s and B-29s - they didn't really need to anymore since they were making so many so fast and there was little air threat from the Axis.

I guess in the '50s they just kept doing what they had been since the mid '40s.

 

[perseus]

Could it be that the paint was to reflect the thermal radiation from a nuclear detonation?

The undersides of the fuselage and wings of some B52s were painted in gloss white anti-flash paint to prevent damage caused by the detonation of its own bomb. Probably, not much need for that in most active conflicts since the late 60s.

 

[Mohmar Deathstrike]

That makes sense, theannoyingnoob and perseus.

 

[LeEnfield]

The reason they stopped painting many of the planes during WW2 was that it could cut several hundred of pounds of the weight of the plane and being shiny and lighter they could get another 5 mph out of the plane. It may not sound much but it could be the difference of living or dieing. Also with the bombers they only managed a few missions before they were lost so why waste time painting them, Also the contra trails given off by B17s and the others were like giant fingers pointing out where the planes were for the Ack Ack gunners, you could not miss them.

 

[Mohmar Deathstrike]

Oh yeah. It was simply lack of paint, not shiny paint!:bang: Somehow I imagined unpainted planes to look rusty, like unpainted ship-hulls