American Aircraft Markings and Camouflage


The USAAF and USN adhered to strict, if ever evolving, standards regarding aircraft camouflage, and the colors specifications then, as today, were standardized in the Federal Specification color charts, which have since been adopted by model builders the world over as a defacto standard of their own. It remains a mystery to me where so many of them obtain the color matching books, which are normally issued by the government to contracters. Your tax dollars at work, I guess. Anyway, this is the meaning of the cryptic numbers proceeded by the letters "FS" you will find on almost every modelbuilder's website used to describe particular color shades. US camouflage color were also referred to by ANA numbers, but the FS colors are more informative.

While many nations decorated their aircraft with nose art, American Air Force pilots were unique in their penchant for painting pretty girls on the sides of their planes. Sometimes they would forget to paint the clothes on them, which would often be hastily added before the plane returned home from the front lines. Eventually, the Air Force passed a regulation encouraging a sense of decorum, but boys will be boys and pretty girls still get painted on airplanes, even in today's Air Force.










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