Recent posting contained the flwg:
" Anyone got any arguments' for' or 'against' for using a light
silver colour as final coat for Fuselage. As a colour it doesn't seem to
far from the heat spectrum of 'white'.
Gentle advice please! "
I, too, have considered this (on the entire aircraft), after having admired
an absolutely beautifully finished Berkut (?) at Cranfield last June. I
talked briefly with Andy Draper about it. He did not rule it out, but said
that I needed to measure the temperature in the underlying structure on some
test samples before a conclusion could be made. I guess such tests could
introduce quite a few uncertainties if not carried out very scientifically.
On my return from Cranfield, I made a qualitative test on cars at the
airport parking lot. White cars had a cool feeling when I placed my hand
flat on the roof or the hood. Silver metallic cars were considerably
warmer, noticeably warmer than my body temperature, even on a light overcast
day. Checked out various shades of silver metallic and different car makes,
same thing. My conclusion is that even light silver metallic paint absorbs
much more heat into the underlying surface than does plain white paint.
Green and red cars were warmer than the silver metallic ones, but not by a
whole lot. No yellow cars in sight, so I cannot give subjective comparisons
with that colour. I have also talked to Bob Berube at Flight Crafters, who
definitely recommended against using metallic paint. So: I will stick with
normal white paint.
I would, however, be very interested if anyone locates a silver metallic
(possibly in combination with filler/primer/top gloss) that indeed reflects
heat almost as well as white paint does.
Regards to all,
Svein K. Johnsen
A225 (now in Norway)
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