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OT - What's with heavy equipment in pastel colors?

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Rhhickok

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Feb 14, 2002, 5:26:36 PM2/14/02
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Have back-hoes, cranes, bulldozers, and the like started showing up in your
area in more femme colors than we expect from this kind of heavy equipment? It
used to be that they were high visibility "safety" colors; Catapillar's bold
gold, T-Rex's bright lime green. Now some are even showing up in lavender. Is
it just one company or an industry trend? Expiring minds want to know. --
Richard "I see, therefor I wonder" Hickok

Eric Benner

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Feb 14, 2002, 6:14:34 PM2/14/02
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Sometimes companies order the equipment painted in custom colors or have it
repainted after buying it. It really shouldn't matter what color it is. Most
of those machines are so big that if people can't see it, they need to get
their eyesight checked, not demand a different color paint on the machine.

Eric Benner TRA 8975

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Eric Benner

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Feb 14, 2002, 6:25:58 PM2/14/02
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Hey! I didn't mean to sound nasty in that reply. In fact, creative colors on
construction equipment sounds fun. Here are a few smiley faces to make up
for my unhappy mood.

8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)

Eric Benner TRA 8975

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Rhhickok

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Feb 14, 2002, 6:32:15 PM2/14/02
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These appear to be off-the-rack colors, rather than painted to some company's
color scheme requests. I think they're from foreign manufacturers. -- Richard
"they just aren't macho enough" Hickok

David

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Feb 14, 2002, 7:40:08 PM2/14/02
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I've seen some pretty hideous colors on Hitachi equipment here in North
Caralacky.

-- David


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JonFickett

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Feb 14, 2002, 8:32:06 PM2/14/02
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Don't seem to allow those wicked ugly colors here in New Hamsha.

John Karpich

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Feb 14, 2002, 9:38:28 PM2/14/02
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The engineers that designed the F-117 Nighthawk (Stealth Fighter) originally
had it painted in pastel colors which according to them would be harder to
see.

The Air Force said No no no.. Real men fight in black planes, so it was
painted black.


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David Weinshenker

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Feb 14, 2002, 9:41:41 PM2/14/02
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John Karpich wrote:
> The engineers that designed the F-117 Nighthawk (Stealth Fighter) originally
> had it painted in pastel colors which according to them would be harder to
> see.
>
> The Air Force said No no no.. Real men fight in black planes, so it was
> painted black.

Weren't some military aircraft painted pale blue on the underside so they
would be harder to see against the sky?

-dave w

Mark Johnson

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Feb 15, 2002, 9:02:27 AM2/15/02
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"David Weinshenker" <daz...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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> Weren't some military aircraft painted pale blue on the underside so they
> would be harder to see against the sky?

The British were fond of that scheme - camouflage green on the upper
surfaces and blue-gray on the bottom, so as to make them low-contrast,
in theory, when viewed from either above or below. I seem to recall
seeing pictures of Hawker Sea Furies (the navalized version of the
Tempest) in that color configuration.

Don't know if US military forces ever tried it...


Rhhickok

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Feb 15, 2002, 10:59:46 AM2/15/02
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From my days of building model planes as a kid, I thought almost everybody did
that camoflauge on the top/light blue (or gray) on the bottom paint scheme. --
Richard "have been laboriously cleaning launch rods" Hickok

Mark Simpson

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Feb 15, 2002, 12:43:19 PM2/15/02
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One of the reasons for this is the fact that lots of heavy equipment
is now being imported from Japan. I guess they aren't as "macho" as
John Deere and Caterpillar. ;-)

Mark Simpson
NAR 71503 Level II


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Scott McCrate

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Feb 15, 2002, 1:59:27 PM2/15/02
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rhhi...@aol.com (Rhhickok) wrote in message news:<20020215105946...@mb-fq.aol.com>...

> From my days of building model planes as a kid, I thought almost everybody did
> that camoflauge on the top/light blue (or gray) on the bottom paint scheme. --
> Richard "have been laboriously cleaning launch rods" Hickok

I remember building a B-25 Mitchell kit that was light grey on the
bottom and Army Air Corps green on top. Also, the Corsairs stationed
in the Pacific theater were light blue on the bottom and Navy Blue on
top. B-52s in Vietnam were frequently painted dual camo colors as
well.

Scott McCrate

Crussell51

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Feb 15, 2002, 9:29:24 PM2/15/02
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John Karpich noted about heavy equipment fashions:

>The engineers that designed the F-117 Nighthawk (Stealth Fighter) originally
had it painted in pastel colors which according to them would be harder to
see. The Air Force said No no no.. Real men fight in black planes, so it was
painted black.

The Have Blue prototype for the F-117 was painted in a blue and gray (IIRC)
camo pattern. The military had done a lot of research into aircraft coloring
as a few seconds of being undetected could be the difference from a pilot
"live(ing) in fame or go down in flames...hey, nothing will stop the U.S. Air
Force." I believe the biggest lesson was that there isn't one pattern that
will fit all theatures of operation. Vietnam camo over Irag? Navy gray over
jungles? Somewhere you have to find a compromise and hope that you see first
and shoot first.
The black color of the F-117 is due to the radar-absorbing coatings and the
planned mode of operations. Why do you suppose they call it the Nighthawk?
OT - while I was active duty here at the former Carswell Airplane Patch in Fort
Worth, we knew a F-117 was to arrive for an air show. I was walking back from
the gym after my lunch hour run when I saw the F-117 making a pass - but never
heard it until it turned away from me to make the landing approach. Pretty
clever, these Americans.

Chas
Charles Russell, USAF, MSgt, ret.
NAR 9790

Eric Benner

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Feb 16, 2002, 1:16:45 AM2/16/02
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I think I'll try that with my rockets - flight today, noise tomorrow.

--

Eric Benner TRA 8975

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KG8GC

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Feb 16, 2002, 10:43:39 PM2/16/02
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During WWII, the British painted many of their planes' undersides with a
"colour" called "Duck Egg Blue", light blue with a touch of green.

Karl Perry

Glenn Merrell

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Feb 17, 2002, 12:55:30 AM2/17/02
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The F117, Project Hav Blu, was originally painted a pattern of pastels
in the blue hue, but real men don't fly pastle airplanes. A black
aircraft stands out against the night sky the sam as a blue ship would
on the ocean. The British used a pattern of hard geometric shapes that
worked well.

Glenn

KG8GC

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Feb 17, 2002, 8:54:51 PM2/17/02
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The British tried black and white at the begining of the War. Some planes'
bottoms were painted black on one half and white on the other half, the center
line down the middle of the fuse, one wing black and the other white.

Karl Perry

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