F117 Paint color

[Jonathan Mock]

Paint it light grey!

There was at least one F-117 finished in what appears to be a light grey
splinter scheme, as can be found in THIS IS STEALTH by Eric Simonsen.

Anyone got any hard and fast gen on this particular Nighthawk?

--
Jonathan Mock

"Take a walk outside myself
To some exotic land
Greet a passing stranger
And feel the strength in his hand.
Feel the world expand..."

Rush - Hand Over Fist

[David Zeiler]

This was apparently one of the first ac. There was an article about camo
in Popular science which discussed that ac supposedly black is in fact not
a good camo color even at night and the soft greys and pastels are harder
to see both from above and below. The airforce powers that be did not want
to have a pastel airplane and ordered them painted black DZ.

Jonathan Mock <jonathan.m...@ukonline.co.uk> wrote in article
<jonathan.mockSPAMOFF-ya0...@news.ukonline.co.uk>...

[Dave Williams]

Jonathan Mock wrote:
>
> Paint it light grey!
>
> There was at least one F-117 finished in what appears to be a light grey
> splinter scheme, as can be found in THIS IS STEALTH by Eric Simonsen.
>
> Anyone got any hard and fast gen on this particular Nighthawk?
>
> --
> Jonathan Mock
>
> "Take a walk outside myself
> To some exotic land
> Greet a passing stranger
> And feel the strength in his hand.
> Feel the world expand..."
>
> Rush - Hand Over Fist

I don't know if this is the same one, but WAPJ Vol 17 has a color three
view of YF-117A #1 (a/c 780) in a three color grey, sand, and blue
disruptive scheme with curved edges between the colors. Apparently this
aircraft only in the scheme for a short while, before being painted in
an overall grey scheme (which the other 5 FSD aircraft also wore).
Later they were all repainted in the definitive overall black scheme.
The only thing I've seen in a hard edge splinter scheme is the Have Blue
experimental test ship.

Dave

[M. Shropshire]

Jonathan Mock wrote:

> Paint it light grey!
>
> There was at least one F-117 finished in what appears to be a light
> grey
> splinter scheme, as can be found in THIS IS STEALTH by Eric Simonsen.
>
> Anyone got any hard and fast gen on this particular Nighthawk?
>
> --
> Jonathan Mock
>
> "Take a walk outside myself
> To some exotic land
> Greet a passing stranger
> And feel the strength in his hand.
> Feel the world expand..."
>
> Rush - Hand Over Fist

Jonathan,

If memory serves me right the F-117s with the grey splinter paint
jobs are the FSD aircraft. They carried the call sign of "Scorpion".

If I am wrong I know someone out there in RMS land will tell me

Matt Shropshire
"I email, therefore I am lost on the Internet"

[Burkhard Domke]

On 19 Aug 1997 21:38:51 GMT, "David Zeiler" <dze...@erols.com> wrote:

>This was apparently one of the first ac. There was an article about camo
>in Popular science which discussed that ac supposedly black is in fact not
>a good camo color even at night and the soft greys and pastels are harder
>to see both from above and below. The airforce powers that be did not want
>to have a pastel airplane and ordered them painted black DZ.
>

Black may not be the optimum camo color when viewed in the visible
spectrum, even at night, but flat black is nearly nonreflective
regarding the infra-red portion of "light". Another matter is
ultraviolet reflectivity, as some dual-mode missile seekers try to
corelate IR or microwave (radar) signatures with UV discontinuities in
the background sky to discriminate between decoys (chaff, flares) and
real targets.
For you "authentic color" freaks, I'd propose an amendment to contest
judging rules. A new class designated STEALTH MODELS (including
F-117s, B-2s, Shadow ships and the like...) should be established,
where MW, IR and UV signatures are checked for proper scale effect.

;-)

RLHDLW (Burkhard)
Weisswurscht RULES

[Barton Spencer Brown]

Jonathan Mock wrote:
>
> Paint it light grey!
>
> There was at least one F-117 finished in what appears to be a light grey
> splinter scheme, as can be found in THIS IS STEALTH by Eric Simonsen.
>
> Anyone got any hard and fast gen on this particular Nighthawk?
>
> --
> Jonathan Mock

WAPJ shows some of the Have Blue and Senior Trend (I think) pre-prod
aircraft in this splinter pattern...

Bart "Don't know much about airplanes" Brown