aircraft camouflage

Since the A-10 flies low to the ground and at subsonic speed, aircraft camouflage is important to make the aircraft more difficult to see.

Aircraft camouflage was first used during World War I and was employed extensively during the first half of World War II.

After radar detection systems were developed, aircraft camouflage became less important to the Allies, and a number of late-war Allied aircraft were brought to battle with no camouflage.

Aircraft camouflage faces the challenge that an aircraft's background varies widely, according to whether the observer is above or below the aircraft, and with the background, e.g. farmland or desert.

To the Editor: Re "Can't See the Pigeon for the Feathers" (April 26): It is interesting to note that designers of military aircraft camouflage have incorporated a technique similar to the one nature afforded some pigeons through evolution.

Aircraft camouflage is the use of light and color patterns applied to military aircraft for the purpose of making an aircraft more difficult to see on the ground, in the air, or to make its speed, distance or attitude difficult to determine.