Warbird Information Exchange

This maybe a stupid question with an obvious answer but I got to wondering: Why did nearly all aircraft starting from the 50s and what seems like up through the 80s seem to have black nose cones? This seems to be the case in aircraft with fiberglass/composite nose cones covering radar units. In fact this seems to be the case even in many non-nose mounted radar pods, radomes, etc. Does anyone know if there is some science behind the color? Is this just a case of they needed to be painted some color, so they ended up standardizing on black? I guess I can see this in the early natural metal days but it carried over in to the camouflage era.

Thanks, Ryan

The "black" [sometimes white] on these radomes etc is a neoprene type rubberised coating that has anti-erosion and anti-static properties. Essential for the radar units to operate.

Newer technology allows for different coatings and radome design these days.

Very interesting. Thank you, Ryan

For what it's worth, as a kid in the 60s, I recall seeing C-124s with a mixture of black, white and light brownish brick (red) color.

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i thought about that too. thanks for the info

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If you check around you can find photos of nosecones with the coating pealing back from weather and birstrikes.

Scott

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?????

PHOTO CREDIT: UNKNOWN-STOLEN FROM INTERNET GOOGLE RESULT, AND PHOTOBUCKET. SO I'm gonna go with Credit: Photobucket

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