Painted on Canopies

[CAPFlyer]

Here are scans of the two pictures in the book - Eagle by Lou Drendel.

[Bill Walker]

The F-15s pre-date any CF-18, first delivery of those was in 1983.

This still leaves the question why don't all F-15s have this today? Is it possible that the extra dark area on an all light background actually makes the aircraft easier to see at a distance?

[Michel C-GNCJ]

You see the painted canopy well on these shots of CF-18 from CFB Bagotville:




And this one from the Quebec Airshow:


I did not remember ever seing it on American aircraft but found one from AMARG with the paint on:



And this A-10, judging by the open gear door, also at the Quebec Airshow:

[JDK]

Mod Post: I've just split the discussion about Olds' fighter-bombers into a new thread, as they were two different discussions. Hope everyone's happy.

First try and it worked!

[JDK]

This is the example of 'deceptive' camouflage I was thinking of earlier.



From here.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/model ... zle-2.html

Note that the Sopwith Camel is painted to deceive the enemy gunner as to its angle of flight, or position - to put him off his shot. Most camouflage is to disguise or break up the outline.

As I think we'd agree, I understand the problem was it was just too complicated. Just like the fact that the German 'lozenge' camouflage was more effective than the RFC/RAF PC.10 overall khaki colour, the benefit was perhaps not worth the manufacture and maintenance cost.

[The Inspector]

Didn't Ferris file a cease and desist order with a Federal Court to have the F-15 scheme removed as they were using it without permission and it was originally on a painting by him and thereby copyrighted?

And what about the aggressor 'mud Migs' using an A-4 in light blue with a brown mig profile painted on the fuselage and wings for TOP GUN training.

I think the Austrians during WW1 purposely painted their crosses a bit offset to throw off opposing fighters aim.....

[bdk]

This is the example of 'deceptive' camouflage I was thinking of earlier.

So good I can't even make out the wings!

[CAPFlyer]

Didn't Ferris file a cease and desist order with a Federal Court to have the F-15 scheme removed as they were using it without permission and it was originally on a painting by him and thereby copyrighted?

And what about the aggressor 'mud Migs' using an A-4 in light blue with a brown mig profile painted on the fuselage and wings for TOP GUN training.

I think the Austrians during WW1 purposely painted their crosses a bit offset to throw off opposing fighters aim.....

My understanding (and the captioning on the first scan which I didn't include) is that Ferris was the one who directed the painting of the plane himself. The USAF explored many schemes for the F-15 when it was in testing, but the "Air Superiority Grey", which is actually a Ferris design, was what ended up being the standard application. The second scan I posted is the Air Superiority Grey paint scheme, however it usually didn't include the false canopy.

The only other "unique" scheme applied to the F-15 was the short-lived "European One" scheme that was applied to early Strike Eagles before they chose the overall Battleship Gray paint scheme that is now in use. The Euro One scheme also saw application to the B-1B and a few B-52s prior to their conversions to overall Battleship Gray. That scheme was unique in that the use of the closely hued paint colors caused the apparent change in color of the camouflage depending on the background it was viewed against as the background would cause certain colors to "pop" more.

[michaelharadon]

This is the example of 'deceptive' camouflage I was thinking of earlier.

So good I can't even make out the wings!

[Randy Haskin]

The only other "unique" scheme applied to the F-15 was the short-lived "European One" scheme that was applied to early Strike Eagles before they chose the overall Battleship Gray paint scheme that is now in use.

F-15Es, per se, never actually wore that scheme. The "Strike Eagle" concept demonstrator, which was an F-15B (71-0291), was the jet that was featured in a bunch of these famous McD promotional shots:



These shots spawned endless models and drawings of the F-15E carrying a load it's never actually carried on operational duty.

These three photos (by Paul Minert) from Doug Jenkins' F-15 Eagle, Supreme Heavy-Weight Fighter (Aerofax, 1998) show the three paint schemes considered for the F-15E that were tested in 1986 out at Nellis AFB. Note that the scheme in the middle photo is essentially the same scheme that F-15A-C units have used for many years.

[CAPFlyer]

Interesting Randy, I could've sworn I saw shots of one of the first production aircraft in the scheme with full "SJ" markings. I knew the demonstrator wore the "Euro One" for the promotional shots. I have to find my B-1B book that has the shots of it against different backgrounds in "Euro One" to show the unique properties of the paint scheme that made it attractive for the low-level job and scan them to show here and how they attempted to break up the aircraft's outline and orientation (much as the false canopies and "dazzle paint" was designed to do) simply using closely matched colors that had different apparent luminosities when viewed against different backgrounds.

As for the drawings of loadouts - I've always had fun with those. While the Strike Eagle could theoretically carry some of them, I could never figure out why you'd carry that many CBU's in the real world on one airplane unless you were putting one bird against an entire battalion formation of units, something that the B-52 or B-1B can take care of much better with the F-15E coming in behind with a "light" load of precision weapons and A-A and provide escort and mop-up (kinda like the P-47 and P-51s did in the ETO when escorting medium bombers or the heavies tasked against fielded units).

[Randy Haskin]

86-0183 was the first actual "F-15E", and it's looked like this its entire life so far as I know:



86-0186 is the first jet that went to Seymour to be "operational".

[mazdaP5]

[JDK]

This is the example of 'deceptive' camouflage I was thinking of earlier.

So good I can't even make out the wings!

You should see the other aircraft...


...oh, you can't.

Anyone want to show the W.W.I German 'stealth' bomber?

[Michel C-GNCJ]

This WWI Fokker D-VII from the Museum of Flight in Seattle does sport one of the camo scheme you are talking about, no ?