During 1944 American Army Airforce in Europe gradually did away with the camouflage paint. Some sources claim that this was because of the diminished oposition and the fact that the aircraft performed better without. I am curious to know from which point (date) this happened and who initiated it. It certainly gave the US airplanes a sense of glamour and it contributed to the confidence of the allied armies. But still, was this planned or just dumb luck. I have been googling on tis subject and have not come up with much.
I hope some of the forum members can provide me with usefull info.
Chrzzzz
I just joined based on this question alone.
Link below to a
YouTube Video with time-stamp providing one answer to this question.
no camouflage on USAAF planes
Another source states (
https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/the-u-s-army-air-forces-strips-its-planes-of-paint/ )
American AAF and Navy camouflage paint schemes tended to be two, flat, monotones colors; more a reflection of the priority placed on high volume aircraft production. (based on the Army-Navy Aircraft, or ANA, color standard adopted in June 1943 that combined two previous standards)
AAF aircraft paint schemes were the responsibility of Materiel Command, based at Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Airforce Base). It raised the notion of not painting AAF aircraft in November 1942 based on a study by the RAF that noted speed gains of six to eight miles an hour on an airplane with polished surfaces. In circulating its query, Materiel Command asked if the advantages of camouflage paint would be "more than offset by the last bit of 'oomph' in speed and climb from total elimination." Separately, Proving Ground Command conducted its own flight experiments that same month on the subject, only with painted planes having polished surfaces, and noted speed increases of eight miles per hour. One P-51 used in the tests clocked an astonishing 21 mph increase. Examination of that fighter determined a variety of contributing factors to its speed increase, rendering its results void.
Early in 1943 theater commander input was sought....Strategic commands in active theaters approved paint removal for heavy bombers and fighters if the tests proved out. Active combat tactical commands tended to recommend smoother surfaces or no change at all.
No record exists about how much a gallon of paint used on the aircraft weighed. Contemporary reports stated that with the elimination of the paint, fighters would be "fifteen to twenty pounds lighter" and heavy bombers would "lose seventy to eighty pounds." One recent study on the subject noted that the paint during this period was undoubtedly lead-based and "probably copper fortified." A gallon of such paint could weigh as much as 30 pounds, though for aircraft it was more likely to be in the 10-pound range. A B-17 has a surface area of 4,200 square feet and took about 35 gallons of paint to coat. If the paint weighed 10 pounds a gallon wet, after accounting for evaporation the weight would be roughly 300 pounds. Given that figure, eliminating the paint would indeed be a major weight reduction.
Additional Notes:
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Specifications
Weights:
Empty: 33,279 lb (15,095 kg)
Full: 35,728 lb (16,205 kg)
Based on just these two sources the decision was made first and foremost to save time and to save money.
One to grow on XD
Two Aliens are sitting down in the break-room and talking about work before they punch in the clock; there names are Bob and Tom. Bob and Tom both have the same job - they are a bit like Letter Carriers, AKA mailmen, in that they have their own zone they work in (zip-code) and they each have their own route; each has their own slice of the galaxy they are responsible for investigating into whether or not there exists any signs of intelligent life on an alien planet. They go from solar system to solar system and observe and report.
Well, nothing exciting for Bob and Tom, just the usual small-talk, but really big-stuff for us Earthlings. What is just a casual conversation in the morning at the vending-machine or microwave to us, is what this conversation is to the friendly Aliens Robert and Thomson.
Bob: Where do they have you today?
Tom: Zone 7, Route 65 (The Milkyway Galaxy).
Bob: How many alien life-forms have you found yet?
Tom: I only got there yesterday after lunch. Dumb@$$ supervisor Dalton B. Rutherford called me on my lunch break. It was 45 light-years away. By the time I got there, I practically had to turn around. They waste so much fuel here. And then they don't pay us what we deserve!
Bob: You know what I say, if you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing at all.
Tom: (Earth); a single planet with alien-life.
Bob: Did the planet contain any signs of emerging intelligent life?
Tom: No. They had all of their nuclear weapons pointed at themselves.