In article ,
RR Urban wrote:

Have you ever found any that has decent color retention
or am I thinking of Day-Glo Fluorescent or some such?


Barnyard BOb --



*NOT* Day-Glo, which, by the way, is a trademarked brand. The actual
formulation of the dye may even be patented. Original application was
strictly for paper stocks -- signs, flyers, bumper-stickers, etc.
KRYLON has some spray acrylic paints that are similar in intensity,
but they do have a fading issue on prolonged exposure to sunlight.

I mean the one that was common on "Yellow Cabs", circa the 1950's. (before
Day Glo even _existed_ Also used on wing tips, etc. of many military,
particularly Navy, trainers.

The auto-paint version was extremely durable on the Cabs. Could hardly
tell a 15 year old panel, from one that was 3 months off the assembly-line.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I did state "some such" as well as the trade marked "Day-Glo".
No need to get sidetracked or hung up over this minutia. g

FWIW...
On drab, dark and dank NYC streets with cabs inching along,
orange might be a good brand recognition thing, but from all
that I have gleaned so far...

A taxi cab environment or fire engine environment is
NOT the same as an aircraft environment. Nor are the
various lighting conditions equal. Drawing parallels without
convincing appropriate reinforcing data is pure folly.

When it comes to AIRCRAFT visibility, who can point to appropriate
research recommending orange as an OUTSTANDING color?

Early MILITARY TRAINER AIRCRAFT used it for _exactly_ that reason.

What might its value be for exceptionally small aircraft approaching
head on in bright light with closure rates of nearly 400 mph?

In one scenario... the aircraft begins as a tiny black spec....

Yup. at "maximum range", color *IS* meaningless.

regardless of actual color, less than two miles out. In less than
18 IDEAL seconds you have a near miss or a brutal collision.

Which means that every fraction of a second of additional 'detection'
time counts. The 'tiny black spec...' constitutes "insufficient data"
as a basis to take _any_ kind of action. One has to observe it _long_
_enough_ to determine "apparent direction of travel", *and* that it is
in fact, closing on your position, before one can determine that an
avoidance manouver _will_ make the situation better.

In the first NINE seconds of that 18 IDEAL second interval, the apparent
diameter of that 'tiny black spec' has *only* increased by 2. It's
doubtful that this is enough of a change to determine that the object
_is_ closing on you. The next 4.5 seconds gives another doubling,
and in the 2.25 seconds after that it doubles again. *IF*YOU'RE*REALLY*
*OBSERVANT*, you've got about 5 seconds before the collision, when you
become 'aware' of the potential problem. More likely it's less than 3 seconds.
Human reaction time is about 3/4 of a second. Not counting any 'panic'.

Depending on how long it takes the change in controls to materially affect
the craft, you've got _real_ problems.