most visible color/paint scheme?

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Brad W

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I was just contimplating my long-time dream of someday building a kitplane someday (or restoring an old classic) while watching an aviation vid on youtube.... and the question of color came to mind.

What is generally considered to be the easiest color/scheme for others to see?
I'm thinking vfr see and avoid
and I'm also thinking search and rescue in the event of an off-airport landing or crash

My mind keeps coming around to the red/orange and white schemes used in military training aircraft and USCG aircraft. Surely there's been some science applied to that decision....
and then as a second a bright yellow ala piper cub or the SNJ trainers of old....

I know it depends on the background, etc... desert is different from forest, ocean, etc.....
But I'm asking generally...all things considered....most universally versatile...the most visible.
 
Well, I've had two different people nearly hit me while I was flying a bright yellow piper cub - the second time being another piper cub! So I'll have to downvote that. I suspect the first one was because their head was down in the cockpit looking for ADSB targets - color may not have mattered. I recommend whichever color - get lots and lots of bright LED lights.
 
Bright on top, dark on bottom. Dark leading edges.

The bright color (presumably yellow) on top allows pilots above you to pick you out against the ground. The dark on bottom allows pilots below you to see you against the light sky background. Same as the dark leading edges allow head-on traffic to see you against a light background.
 
Air tractors are pretty easy to spot.

at-802-10-1024x682.jpg

Helps that they're big.

I think yellow is the easiest color to spot, but it don't want a plane that color. I'm with @kaiser. Lots of LED lights is the answer.
 
Brad W said:
What is generally considered to be the easiest color/scheme for others to see?
Click to expand...
There has been research on this going back to the 30s. Prior to the formulation of "International Orange, yellow was the best contrast color regardless of background for aircraft. And its use can be seen in many examples for that specific reason even today.
 
nauga said:
Keith Ferris (aviation artist) used to speak on camouflage and visibility but I can't find my references at the moment. Worth what you paid for it: From a visibility standpoint a few large areas of one or two colors are better than many smaller areas of color. Bright colors are better than muted. Unnatural colors are better than natural. Gloss is better than matte.

OTOH, this is hard to miss:
View attachment 115900

Nauga,
reporting from the seen
Click to expand...
source: https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/paint-colors-and-safety.142109
...and I have found and lost (and probably found and lost) my Ferris notes.

Nauga,
same as it ever was
 
One of the things that attracted me to the plane I bought last summer was the paint scheme (and quality). I think that should be fairly visible, but it is a small aircraft, which doesn't help. However, it also has LED nav lights, a belly-mount strobe and a pair of LED landing lights. I normally fly with nav and strobe on all the time and landing lights near an airport.


IMG_1254.jpg
 
I flew this airplane for 10 years painted like this. The story I got was that owner was told that yellow was the most visible color to avoid midair' plus his late wife liked yellow. People on the ground told us that it looked black from a distance.

28CYellow.JPG
 
Polished aluminum? The most visible plane I've seen was a VERY shiny Cessna 150 from 10 or so miles away as he was making turns in the pattern.

However, I sure wouldn't want to maintain that polish.
 
A friend had an ultralight with orange and neon green wings. You could see it from a long way away.
 
mark.staggs said:
Polished aluminum? The most visible plane I've seen was a VERY shiny Cessna 150 from 10 or so miles away as he was making turns in the pattern.

However, I sure wouldn't want to maintain that polish.
Click to expand...
Living in Florida, I’ve told my neighbors that if they ever see a bare aluminum plane in my hangar, to just grab the nine-pund sledgehammer in the corner and start hitting me over the head with it. I can’t imagine how much work it would take to keep it glimmering in the humidity.
 
I spent a lot of time looking into this. What I recall:
Specific color does not matter.
Contrast with background matters:
-when looking up to the sky to see a plane, dark colors help
-when looking down towards the ground, light colors help

My choice would be to spend more on best lights and not fret the paint other than above.
 
Flashing lights. Strobes, beacon, forward flashers. Light it up like Christmas. It won’t matter what color it is. I can see flashing landing lights from 25 miles away but I’ve almost run into Cubs with my Cessna a couple of times when I couldn’t see them flying the same heading/altitude right in front of me. My Cub has a strobe on the rudder and a beacon on the fin as a result of that. The slower you are, the more important aft lights are.

On the ground? 406 ELTs take the mystery out of where you are.
 
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Dark wingtips. My Arrow had white wings with about the last 2 feet of each tip painted dark green. I got to fly another plane near the Arrow once and those dark wingtips seemed huge, like giant tip tanks, from loose formation distance. It made it very easy to tell how far away and what attitude the plane was in.
 
all that makes good sense...
so I'm now wondering why specifically the USN has stuck with this particular color scheme? they've been using it a long time...
1738546492795.png1738546240284.png1738546256115.png1738546272272.png1738546287309.png1738546319224.png

Also curious why the USAF doesn't seem to care?
1738546447590.png1738546417866.png1738546429288.png
 
ateamer said:
I’ve told my neighbors that if they ever see a bare aluminum plane in my hangar, to just grab the nine-pund sledgehammer in the corner and start hitting me over the head with it.
Click to expand...
suspicious-muppet-png.120433


Nauga,
who looks like a nail
 
Lot of factors here...visibility air-to-air, visibility after crash landing in fields, forests, deserts, snow, etc.....

Big thing, air-to-air wise, is to make the "object" quickly identifiable as an airplane, and thus help other traffic spot you. Here's something I put together a while back. Three basic color schemes of the same airplane, close in, and at a moderate distance with land and sky backgrounds.

1738553127121.png
Notice how the multicolor Eagle looks visible close-in, but the different colors get muddy at a distance and the plane gets harder to spot. Even the version with just the single wide stripe on the wing suffers at a distance. It breaks up the outline and essentially makes the plane smaller.

Remember that most of the airplanes you see are mostly white. Thus, a white airplane will probably be more quickly recognized than even a red one....which, at any sort of distance, will basically start blending into the background.

One loves international orange on a crashed plane, as it will tend to stand out against any background. However, at a distance in flight, it will obscure the shape of the airplane.

The British handled this at one point by painting their trainers *black*. It was believed that it made the airplane stand out from the background at altitude.
1738554551393.png
Now, I don't want to go all Keith Ferris* on your asp, but I think the ideal solution for a GA aircraft would be a bright white airplane with the outer edges defined in a high-visibility color.


1738554468111.png
The (mostly) white color helps it stand out against the most common backgrounds,while the red basically forms a "stick figure" shape of an airplane, which will help recognition.

Now...I'm the first to say this is an ugly paint scheme. But if you want visibility....

Ron Wanttaja

* Video of the Keith Ferris-inspired paint job on the bottom of my airplane...

Ron Wanttaja
 
Brad W said:
I was just contimplating my long-time dream of someday building a kitplane someday (or restoring an old classic) while watching an aviation vid on youtube.... and the question of color came to mind.

What is generally considered to be the easiest color/scheme for others to see?
I'm thinking vfr see and avoid
and I'm also thinking search and rescue in the event of an off-airport landing or crash

My mind keeps coming around to the red/orange and white schemes used in military training aircraft and USCG aircraft. Surely there's been some science applied to that decision....
and then as a second a bright yellow ala piper cub or the SNJ trainers of old....

I know it depends on the background, etc... desert is different from forest, ocean, etc.....
But I'm asking generally...all things considered....most universally versatile...the most visible.
Click to expand...
You want contrast in all cases. Bright on top, darker on the bottom.

Specifically, I'd make the top blaze orange. Yellow is naturally occurring in too many places to make it always visible. Daffodils, canola and other yellow flowers, wheat, sand, etc will all benefit from orange over yellow.

The bottom can be a wider variety of colors, as it's easier to see the plane against the sky than all the clutter on the ground. Just don't make it white or blue! Yellow, more orange, or even a darker color can stand out. Keep in mind, though, that if you're looking for visibility after a crash, you don't want something dark green if your plane flips over. So, that orange may work well for both.

Also, consider the sides of the plane. Don't make a light color over a dark color with a straight line between, or you'll look just like the horizon! Mix it up a little.
mark.staggs said:
Polished aluminum? The most visible plane I've seen was a VERY shiny Cessna 150 from 10 or so miles away as he was making turns in the pattern.
Click to expand...
It's great on a sunny day, but it also will tend to reflect whatever's around it so it could become difficult to see as well.

Finally... @Bill posted the world's ugliest airplane, which will certainly catch your eye. However, you can do a lot of colors and make a very pretty airplane too, not that I'm biased or anything (and I'm sure @Bill would agree that this is a pretty plane too, since we both fly Mooneys).


image.jpeg.a45b39e9ed1f9bd2713e4c240ce413e5.jpeg
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
black and white checker.....is the most visible.
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Did somebody call me? ;)

Really though I'm not sure it matters what color you are or how you are painted. In air when ADSB says there is somebody out there it is still hard to find. And any more than a mile or so, it is just a dark spot, it seems.1000000254.jpg
 
Like others have said, yellow like spirit wings can't be everyone's paint job, but I find it easy to spot.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Finally... @Bill posted the world's ugliest airplane, which will certainly catch your eye. However, you can do a lot of colors and make a very pretty airplane too, not that I'm biased or anything (and I'm sure @Bill would agree that this is a pretty plane too, since we both fly Mooneys).


View attachment 137757
Click to expand...
No question it's a pretty paint job, and eye catching....from 50 feet away.

But that paint job breaks up the shape of the airplane, just like dazzle camouflage.
1738568884226.png
Makes it harder to see, and harder for your brain to figure out what it's seeing and what direction it's traveling.

Ron Wanttaja
 
kyleb said:
Bright on top, dark on bottom. Dark leading edges.

The bright color (presumably yellow) on top allows pilots above you to pick you out against the ground. The dark on bottom allows pilots below you to see you against the light sky background. Same as the dark leading edges allow head-on traffic to see you against a light background.
Click to expand...

If you ever fly in the southwest, yellow would blend with the desert landscape.
I would think silver would be the best choice, metallic paint of course.
 
What impresses me is how fighter pilots are able to maintain a visual on a gray plane zipping back and forth, sometimes behind them, a few miles away, while they themselves are doing the same and pulling 6+ Gs. Next level.
 
My mechanic/painter buddy added wing stripes to promote visibility. He learned it from a lifetime spent working on real bush planes. I’ve been told my Cub is easy to spot. Bright colors contrasting the base color with separation between panels. Makes sense.IMG_1139.jpeg
 
flyingcheesehead said:
You want contrast in all cases. Bright on top, darker on the bottom.

Specifically, I'd make the top blaze orange. Yellow is naturally occurring in too many places to make it always visible. Daffodils, canola and other yellow flowers, wheat, sand, etc will all benefit from orange over yellow.

The bottom can be a wider variety of colors, as it's easier to see the plane against the sky than all the clutter on the ground. Just don't make it white or blue! Yellow, more orange, or even a darker color can stand out. Keep in mind, though, that if you're looking for visibility after a crash, you don't want something dark green if your plane flips over. So, that orange may work well for both.

Also, consider the sides of the plane. Don't make a light color over a dark color with a straight line between, or you'll look just like the horizon! Mix it up a little.

It's great on a sunny day, but it also will tend to reflect whatever's around it so it could become difficult to see as well.

Finally... @Bill posted the world's ugliest airplane, which will certainly catch your eye. However, you can do a lot of colors and make a very pretty airplane too, not that I'm biased or anything (and I'm sure @Bill would agree that this is a pretty plane too, since we both fly Mooneys).


View attachment 137757
Click to expand...
While I own a Mooney and love them, and while I think this is a neat and unique color scheme (saw it close-up at OSH), I would NOT want this for my plane. :D

However, if you're looking for visibility, this just might be it. It's definitely not going to blend into many surroundings unless you crash into a paint factory.
 
After careful analysis, I painted mine yellow because that's what it was painted before. I think it's pretty visible, though perhaps the white belly and under-wings are not optimal. The big yellow tail is an eye catcher.

markup_1000004505~2.jpg
 
For visibility, I'd go with blaze orange. There's a reason hunters wear it.

I'd also recommend wig-wag lights because our eyes are attracted to motion.

1738594611279.png
 
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Champ. The story I've always heard was Hap Grainer, who was a designer at Aeronca, had a near miss with another aircraft in an early test flight. He then came up with a scheme that would make them more visible.

N2394E_1946_Aeronca_7AC_Champion_C-N_7AC-5973_%2815365657869%29.jpg
 
Brad W said:
all that makes good sense...
so I'm now wondering why specifically the USN has stuck with this particular color scheme? they've been using it a long time...
Click to expand...

The USN/USMC is moving away from the traditional white and orange in favor of fleet gray on their trainers.

theaviationist.com

U.S. Navy T-45 Goshawk Jets Start Receiving Glossy Gray Paint

The new glossy gray finish will replace the traditional orange-and-white livery of the U.S. Navy T-45 trainer aircraft. The U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Air
theaviationist.com theaviationist.com

1738596849499.png
 
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