Fighter painting has always attracted the attention of military enthusiasts. Of course, there are also many people who advocate the "uselessness of painting". In fact, the painting of each fighter is not done casually. There is a deep meaning in it. Most of them are for improving the combat capability of fighters, but there are also traces of collectivism in a specific historical environment. Let's talk about the main functions of fighter painting: First, it is easy to be invisible and adapt to the mission of the aircraft. Painting is essentially an optical stealth technology, which integrates the aircraft with the background, making it difficult for the enemy to find and identify. In order to improve the concealment ability and adaptability of aircraft in different activity areas, the painting of fighters has gradually developed from monochrome to multi-color, and the color is changed according to the characteristics of the region and airspace. Carrier-based aircraft operating at sea are generally light gray, light blue and white. Interceptors are specially used to intercept invading enemy aircraft or cruise missiles in the air. When flying at high altitudes, due to the strong light scattering on the fuselage, dark gray monochrome painting is usually used to reduce the contrast with the background. Attack aircraft are responsible for low-altitude attack missions and often use paintings similar to the ground color. Second, to ensure high visibility, training, rescue and test aircraft require obvious color difference and large contrast with the background. Search and rescue aircraft usually use high visibility orange and white, and trainer aircraft generally use white upper fuselage, red lower fuselage and red wing tip paint, so that instructors can clearly observe the flight situation. Third, eliminate visual fatigue. Factors such as color, brightness and time are important factors that cause pilot visual fatigue. In order to eliminate or reduce pilot visual fatigue, the front part of the cockpit is painted with anti-glare colors with poor reflectivity and good light absorption, generally black or dark gray. Fourth, sun protection is also one of the factors that need to be considered in fighter painting. Strong sunlight will increase the temperature inside the aircraft, which is not conducive to aircraft maintenance and operation. For example, the US military has included white and gray as aircraft sun protection colors in relevant military specifications. Fifth, promote military prestige. In addition, military aircraft are often sprayed with some marks, patterns, pilots' names and the number of enemy aircraft shot down to improve the morale of combatants, such as the tiger shark paint painted on the P-40 in World War II. Here are some of the most distinctive fighter jets: In the 1960s, personalized slogans appeared on the Chinese Air Force fighters. The J-6 fighter in the picture above has a big red slogan "Destroy the invading enemy" printed on the right nose. In the same period, the Chinese Air Force fighters were mostly printed with slogans such as "Serve the People". This is a painting with a very strong imprint of the times. The fighter jets of this period were seriously affected by a certain movement and were full of quotations. There was even no place to write the production batch number, so it had to be placed at the tail. Although the fighter jets of this period have a strong ZZ color, they are also unique. In the 1990s, the various units of the Chinese Air Force brainstormed, learned from others, and combined their own actual production to produce a series of personalized logos sprayed on the fuselage, forming a very rich fuselage logo culture for a time. The most representative one is that the Air Force 1st Division located in the northeast used the impactful "Northeast Tiger" as its emblem, and since then the title of "Tiger Head Lion" has spread like wildfire. ▲Su-30 fighter with "Northeast Tiger" logo▲The "Northeast Tiger" logo of the J-7E of the Air Force 1st DivisionThe "Eagle Earth" badge is also a very distinctive logo of the Chinese Air Force fighter. The picture above shows the "Eagle Earth" badge on the Su-30MKK fighter. The three-plane formation of the J-8B in the distance celebrates the newly introduced Su-30MKK.
▲J-7E painted with the "Eagle Earth" badgeIt is a pity that in 2005, the Chinese Air Force cancelled the personalized painting of various units, and the painting of our fighter jets returned to the state of being the same again. During the 2009 military parade, the J-11 of the Air Force 2nd Division was a little clever in the painting design. The side of the fuselage was painted with a distinctive national flag logo. In fact, the flagpole of the national flag is a formation maintenance mark. The designer added the national flag pattern on the basis of the maintenance mark, bypassing the regulations prohibiting personalized painting. ▲The J-11 fighter jet painted with the national flagThe return of the personalized painting of the Chinese Air Force is the famous 131st Regiment of the 44th Air Force Division, which painted the "Big Red Eagle" logo on the J-10 fighter jet. The Big Red Eagle is a deformation of the Chinese character "一三一", representing the meaning of the 131st Regiment of the 44th Air Force Division. The "Red Eagle Regiment" with fighter jets painted with the Big Red Eagle is one of the trump cards of the Chinese Air Force. The regiment has trained several pilots with gold helmets. ▲The J-10C painted with the "Big Red Eagle" also belongs to the Air 33rd Division of the Chengdu Military Region. The "Big Golden Eagle" logo of the J-11. It is worth noting that the line behind the eagle's head is an artistic variation of the number 33, which represents the meaning of the Air 33rd Division. ▲The Big Golden Eagle logo has gradually appeared in recent years on naval fighter jets, whose painting has always been slightly different from that of the Air Force. The most representative one is naturally the "Flying Shark" logo of the J-15. ▲The "Flying Shark" logo of the J-15▲Simple drawing of the J-15Finally, here is a picture of the "Diao Pai" transparent soap of the Falcon fighter...( •̀ᴗ•́ )I look forward to the Chinese Air Force becoming stronger and stronger, and the fighter jets' paint jobs becoming richer and more pleasing to the eye.
