On Sun, 7 Mar 2004, Dennis O'Connor wrote:

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...

Really? Against the sky, I can understand, but at a nearby airstrip that's
close to our usual practice area there's an advanced ultralight that's
dark navy blue, and that one is nearly impossible to see against the dark
conifers around that strip. It's even hard to see against the pastures &
fields nearby.

OTOH, the Canadian Air Force is also painting most of its training planes
dark blue now, so maybe there is something to it. Both the Hawks
(http://www.airliners.net/open.file/435441/M/) and the Harvard IIs
(http://www.airliners.net/open.file/435441/M/) are now dark blue. I've
seen both on the ground here, but not from the air against the ground.

Brian.



Now, don't shoot the messenger as he has a tender hide... If you don't like
the message, do your own research...
denny
"Julian Scarfe" wrote in message
news:zZE2c.1820$re1.1377@newsfe1-win...
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.

I think white on top (contrast vs ground clutter) and dark on the
underside
(contrast vs sky) works well, like, for example, the factory Mooney
schemes,
http://www.mooney.com/ .

Julian Scarfe