question about 60's-early 80's mostly USN AC paint

[rob23]

Back in the 70's, my CAP squadron roamed around static displays at airshows held at NAS Atlanta/Dobbins AFB in Marietta GA, mostly asking people to not smoke around the airplanes. This, of course, was when navy airplanes had the gull gray over white and all of those fantastic squadron markings. There was also variety, A-6, A-4, A-7, F-4, F-8, RA-5, P2, etc. Then came the low viz gray over gray over gray. Personally, I miss the cool-ass colorful markings (and having variety, not three flavors of F/A-18). The USAF was mostly in SE Asian or some Euro camo.

Does anyone else miss those more colorful days, or am I just stuck in a nostalgia trap? Also, are the airshow dot com airshows as soulless and monotone as they seem? I don't think anything outside something like Osh can beat an airshow from the 60's and 70's.

 

[Retattack]

Back in the 70's, my CAP squadron roamed around static displays at airshows held at NAS Atlanta/Dobbins AFB in Marietta GA, mostly asking people to not smoke around the airplanes. This, of course, was when navy airplanes had the gull gray over white and all of those fantastic squadron markings. There was also variety, A-6, A-4, A-7, F-4, F-8, RA-5, P2, etc. Then came the low viz gray over gray over gray. Personally, I miss the cool-ass colorful markings (and having variety, not three flavors of F/A-18). The USAF was mostly in SE Asian or some Euro camo.

Does anyone else miss those more colorful days, or am I just stuck in a nostalgia trap? Also, are the airshow dot com airshows as soulless and monotone as they seem? I don't think anything outside something like Osh can beat an airshow from the 60's and 70's.

When I got to the fleet, the aircraft were all painted like this:

Within a couple years, they all looked like this:

The difference isn't all that stark, but the delta in visual acquisition range is remarkable. And while aesthetically I prefer the former, the latter is so much more tactically sound that the old paint jobs now look archaic to me.

Cutesy anecdote from a Red Flag debrief: "We know you guys were there, because we saw the bombs hit. But we never saw you, so we can't critique your tactics."

 

[fubar57]

I'm going to have to paraphrase this as I read this story a looooong time ago. At a U.S. Navy event, a reporter said to an Admiral, "Why do you paint those aircraft in boring grey colours. I miss the colourful markings" To which the Admiral replied, "I would rather have a boring aircraft than a missing aircraft"

 

[MIflyer]

I was TDY to Myrtle Beach AFB in October 1975, working on the A-7D they had there. And at the same time, I watched them paint over their natural metal T-33A with gray paint, I thought that a shame. The gray did not look bad but I thought the natural aluminum looked much better, although I understand that much of the bare aluminum was actually painted with an anti-corrosion sliver paint.

 

[Frog]

I was TDY to Myrtle Beach AFB in October 1975, working on the A-7D they had there. And at the same time, I watched them paint over their natural metal T-33A with gray paint, I thought that a shame. The gray did not look bad but I thought the natural aluminum looked much better, although I understand that much of the bare aluminum was actually painted with an anti-corrosion sliver paint.

Reminds me of my first student job : painting with silver anti-corrosion paint the complete vapor piping system of a Colgate Palmolive factory.
It was during the 1976 drought and the hot vapor was circulation in the pipes. As soon as I applied the paint with my brush, the solvent evaporated.
Because of the heat, I had discarded the mask but anyhow escaped a pulmonary oedema.