Aircraft camoflage patterns

[Slater]

These Venezuelan F-16's seem to blend in well against the right background:

[El Cid]

That's a really cool photo! But the thing about aircraft is their movement is what will usually give them away visually. The pattern certainly helps, but can only do so much. Another thing to consider is a pattern that will make them hard to spot when parked on the ramp so attacking aircraft have a harder time seeing them (as well as overhead collection platforms).

The paint I always thought was slick was the false canopy on the bottom of a plane. Some even had a white dot to represent the pilot. They use a somewhat shiny paint and it can fool your eye into believing the plane turned in the opposite direction from what it really did.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Venezuelan?

How are they getting spare parts?

I guess if Iran can still fly F14s.....

[Turnkey11]

Looks great, but they still look the same on a radar.

[Todd00000]

That's a really cool photo! But the thing about aircraft is their movement is what will usually give them away visually. The pattern certainly helps, but can only do so much. .

That's true of all camo, what does a ghillie suit look like running through the woods? It looks like a ghillie suit running through the woods. No matter how good our camo is "I'm up, he sees me, I'm down" is still relevant.

[Koshinn]

That's true of all camo, what does a ghillie suit look like running through the woods? It looks like a ghillie suit running through the woods. No matter how good our camo is "I'm up, he sees me, I'm down" is still relevant.

We need bear camo.

But for aircraft... pterodactyl camo?

[thei3ug]

Go figure. I did a quick search and find Westland-Hill Pterodactyl, photo 1928.

Sorry, everything cool has already been done. Time to go home and eat oatmeal three meals a day and collect rubber bands.

[Koshinn]

Go figure. I did a quick search and find Westland-Hill Pterodactyl, photo 1928.

Sorry, everything cool has already been done. Time to go home and eat oatmeal three meals a day and collect rubber bands.

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I guess there's a reason I'm not an inventor.

[nova3930]

That's a really cool photo! But the thing about aircraft is their movement is what will usually give them away visually. The pattern certainly helps, but can only do so much. Another thing to consider is a pattern that will make them hard to spot when parked on the ramp so attacking aircraft have a harder time seeing them (as well as overhead collection platforms).

Exactly. There's also the issue that at the limits of visual engagement range, the camouflage pattern and colors tend to blend together into a uniform black/gray blob due to the resolution limits of the human eye.

[soulezoo]

There is ongoing experimentation with "lighting up" the aircraft with special lights that eliminate the shadow "black/grey blob" effect and render the aircraft nearly invisible to the eye at range. Close up, it reminds me of the foot lamps of old entertainment stages.