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From: hampep@jacobs.cs.orst.edu (Peter D. Hampe)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Modern USN Aircraft Colors: Why White & Red?
Message-ID: <1990Jul16.030801.5228@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 16 Jul 90 03:08:01 GMT
References: <1990Jul5.020644.14675@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jul8.053603.8430@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Oregon State University - CS - Corvallis
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From: hampep@jacobs.cs.orst.edu (Peter D. Hampe)

In article <1990Jul8.053603.8430@cbnews.att.com> nam2254%dsacg2.dsac.dla.mil@dsac.dla.mil (Tom Ohmer) writes:
>
>
>For that matter, I remember (as a very young boy) military aircraft having
>a portion of the tail (and maybe the wingtips) painted a very bright
>orange.  Anyone know why?
>

The tails and wing tips were in International Distress Orange,
the idea being that mid air collisions could be better avoided
if pilots could see each other.   

Unfortunately, being see is not high on the specs for warcraft,
and as Operations increased in SE Asia, the colour scheme was changed.


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Peter D. Hampe, hampep@jacobs.cs.orst.edu    
This has been another Ask Mr History production.
Moo U thinks I'm long gone.