Timeline for Why are planes generally painted white?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2020 at 18:09 | comment | added | Rayanth | white paint, itself, has a colorant added to it. Most truly white paints use titanium dioxide as a colorant. | |
| Mar 19, 2014 at 1:34 | comment | added | David Richerby | Are you sure white is lighter? Coloured paint is not white paint with a colour added: white paint is typically itself coloured with titanium dioxide. | |
| Mar 17, 2014 at 16:53 | comment | added | reirab | @DannyBeckett, Surfaces that appear white appear so because they reflect all wavelengths of light. Surfaces that appear black appear so because they absorb all wavelengths of light. Other colors are in between. When a material absorbs light energy, it gets transferred into heat energy. I'm not sure that this is the primary reason it's commonly used on aircraft, but I'm sure it does help. | |
| Mar 17, 2014 at 3:29 | comment | added | voretaq7 | I'm not sure what the weight differential is - when I go in for my paint job I'll have to pick some brains on that. I imagine the difference isn't too substantial, but on the scale of an airliner an ounce or two per gallon would add up to quite a bit of weight :-) | |
| Mar 17, 2014 at 3:25 | comment | added | Danny Beckett | I'm led to believe cost isn't the only reason... Something about white reflecting heat? airliners.net answers.yahoo.com | |
| Mar 17, 2014 at 3:23 | history | answered | Lnafziger | CC BY-SA 3.0 |