Why are gliders & sailplanes white?
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- Опубликовано: 10 июл 2024
- White white or white? Is that the only option for your glider? It depends how old it is :) Learn why sailplanes are generally white, how some older gliders are constructed, and see some crazy designs and discussion around what's the most visible colour of glider.
Some interesting studies about aircraft conspicuity:
www.kbsz.hu/j25/dokumentumok/2...
www.segelflug.ch/wp-content/u...
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00:00 Why are gliders white anyway?!
01:03 Inside Guts of Old gliders
02:19 Which colour glider is easiest to see?
02:59 The dangers of non-white 
Наука
PIK 20's came in white, red, orange, and yellow. Someone else mentioned green but I haven't seen that myself. They were cured in a autoclave to a high temperature rather than room temperature. Also of note, they were not finished in gel coat , rather they were filled and painted. Mine is 48 years old and still looks great.
The Schweizer Aircraft Company built many models of sailplanes from metal, up until the 80’s. Since temperature wasn’t an issue, their product came in many different colours. Some really beautiful, some well..,
Flew the 233 in yellow and blue and white
@@e.a.p3174 Great trainer!
The Royal Canadian Air Cadets are the largest owner of the 2-33s Their colours are Yellow and blue.
Pik 20's were available in white, green or orange, but we're post-cured to a higher temperature.
The post-curing temperature can be tailored to the desired requirements as long as it remains within the specifications of the resin. It will then be stable up to that post-cured temp. Typically post-curing at 55"C for 15 hours is the norm for gliders.
Interesting! Thanks for that
The blue one, was an actual top secret stealth glider. Later on, the 2.0 version got little clouds painted on them. Disadvantage of that was, that other gliders started to circkle below them because they tought it was an actual thermal developing. And everybody knows the real reason why gliders are white: glider pilots are tough by themself, they dont need fancy colours to compensate for other stuff.
3:43 You show the ASG 32, but you miss to explain, that it is certified for colours other than white. Just citing the Schleicher product page:
„The ASG 32 is the only current series-built composite sailplane which can be completely painted in various colours. That opens up the possibility of painting large parts of the fuselage, tailplane and wings in different colours. Even in the age of FLARM it’s important to further improve visibility in the air. White colour has a low contrast against clouds and blue sky. Orange and red stand out very clearly against all the natural backgrounds (sky, clouds, vegetation, snow).
At present the approval procedure covers the colours Pure Orange (RAL 2004), Traffic Orange (RAL 2009) and Traffic Red (RAL 3020). If required, further colours can be certified.“
Interesting I didn’t know that!
Not just gliders, this is common thing for all modern planes built from fiberglass and carbon. Thanks for explaining it.
Thanks for watching!
Our club's second DG was recently returned to service after some rework. What was interesting was the hairline cracking in the gel coat around the previous rego markings. Just from the colour difference.
Temperature differences around the lettering?
@@audigga4396 quiet a difference. I'm going to take the temperature gun with me to the field one day and take some readings for curiosity sake.
Gliders are white so you don't disturb the rainbows.
haha good point
I didn't know about such strict requirements regarding fibre glass temps, TIL. Great, straight to the point video
Glad I could help!
There is a old yellow and blue glider at a club near me. I forget the model.
They are in the specifications, e.g. in the repair handbook for doing a complete overhaul incl. re-painting.
Recently Schleicher started using higher temperature tolerant resins, and allow larger areas being painted other than white, even straight from the factory.
We had a Ka6 in the Dublin Gliding Club called Mustard & Custard due to the paint scheme.
Delightful! Great name
My student club is still flying a glider the members built back in the 1960s, the Mü 22, which is a solid orange. Very beautiful aircraft, been doing winter maintenance on it for a couple years.
The wood of the old gliders was generally spruce wood; very strong and light. A type of glue was painted on which tightened the canvas, then it was painted for decoration. They were low performance planes with short wingspans. Fibreglass changed everything but there were some aluminium covered gliders. I think one was called a Blanik.
A video less than 40 minutes on RUclips? :O
Love the format of the short little informative videos!
Thanks! I have no idea what I would show for 40 minutes 😂
very informative! Had never heard of this, but it makes perfect sense
In the RC world you want to paint your aircraft puple/red, yellow/orange or white to have an easier time finding it in the grass!
My standard color scheme on wooden RC sailplanes is port wing tip in dark purple or dark blue, starboard in yellow, the rest of the plane in white with some red on the tail. Helps me figure out which way the plane is going, and of course find it when I land out...
Was fun seeing the structure and features of the older gliders. Any thoughts on a retrospective and how gliders have changed? Maybe from a performance, structure and pilot view. Maybe how the aircraft have changed recreational and competition gliding.
I don't mean all of this in one video :) But maybe some aspects are interesting.
Not much has changed really, except improved glide ratio! Otherwise you still have to look out the window and find the lift. Once you’re in sink, any glider has the performance of a hang glider!
Great short video, thanks! Only one FRP glider I know was exception to this "all white" rule - PIK-20, they used a different resin, but still followed the trend and were painted white.
Interesting, cheers!
our club ask 13 when i was stationed in germany had a red fuselage but white wings.. our ka8 was red as well, our ask18 was a off orange color but most of the other gliders (some fiberglass newer gliders like LS4, ask21 etc) we had were white
While less important, white probably also gives the best protection from UV which ages/rots the plastic.
Good point!
Nice little video, Tim.
Had I the money and owned it, I'd send that EoN Oly for restoration. Such a good looking beauty in Azure Blue and white lettering. A true vintage glider, these days.
Cheers.
Yes it’s likely to be restored for a museum. Unfortunately the timber is too damaged after sitting damp for too many years, so it won’t fly again unless someone wants a massive project!
@@PureGlide Glad to read that. Very nice.
Back in 2015, we had a mid-air on final between 2 club gliders (R-26 SU Góbé). Both were painted blue and silver colors by some really stupid decision. During the analysis, the investigation committe conducted various visbility test, and recommended the usage of a few red or orange stripes for better visibility on those aircraft, that would otherwise be hard to spot due to their overall color scheme. As one of the glider was flying with a student and an 81-year old instructor, the comittee also recommended maximizing the non-commercial flight instructor priviledges, similar to the age limitation of commercial transport privileges.
I just found the accident report, yes they were blue and silver, half in half, so very much destroying the shape of the glider visually! No radios would be bad too. The report is interesting, it states reflective foils are bad (which is not really a surprise) and a black patch on the wing was the easiest to spot colour out of blue/black/yellow/red which makes sense too. Very interesting, thanks
www.kbsz.hu/j25/dokumentumok/2015-157-4%20FR.pdf
That accident report referred to the study I was thinking of in the video, so that meant I could find it! Thank you :)
www.segelflug.ch/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/glider_consp_study.pdf
@@PureGlidewhoa, awsome! 😁
Hopefully the colors are invented now so Pure Glide can have merch with a colorful logo on it ;)
😂
Looks like Lindsey's old ask 13. Nice to hear it's getting back in the air.
It is! Cheers
i was going to say, " a polished chrome painted glider would be boss " ( considering just the thermal )
but then it would reflect the surroundings and that might come out camo....or sky looking from above, and ground looking from below, and not so well seen from the sides maybe?
Yeah I’ve wondered about that too!! I would totally do it
@@PureGlide i can't find anything tough enough yet....probably have to talk to someone in auto body supply.
@@PureGlide
these Have Not Been At All Normal topsoil loss rates in america,
and it has something to do with transparent sub-saharan substance weapons systems being on the ground and active since the colonization.
by the way, climate change has more to do with Loss of Carbon Sink , healthy topsoils sink VAST quantities of CO^2.
( well we all have to eat, right? ...so it gets subconsciously discarded as being the primary problem....but it is ),
That's Right ---> sub-saharans have been causing climate change for Thousands Of Years, and we are just further into THE Tipping Point, than most are comfortable admitting.
they breed faster than the food grows.
history, through into the fossil record, shows that whenever sub-saharans meet a supply and demand food system
I recall being told white paint ways more than other colours, enough difference to make it a colour to avoid for race cars.
hmm sounds dodgy!
Admittedly but the guy was a time served paint shop specialist from Jaguar, he claimed the minerals needed to reflect each colour of the spectrum all had to be in white paint to reflect light as white.@@PureGlide
I think the orange contrast stripes are a great addition to an otherwise very white aircraft
Yeah, I want a sky blue glider. No one will be able to see me. Perfectly safe...
Haha to be fair any glider against the blue sky looks black, so not as bad as you might think
My EoN Olympia 401 was more beige than white from the fabric aging
Interesting!
Solid colour vs camoflage or patterns depends a lot on what you are trying to hide or make visible. Dazzle camoflage actually makes it easy to see 'movement' but harder to see detail. If your mind is explicitly looking for a glider then a solid colour glider is always easier to see, cuz your brain is pattern matching a shape. If you were trying to see camoflage something moving then a solid colour somewhere near the background is good. As if this hadn't wandered enough off topic there is a discussion in the motorbike world about making bikes more visible, as bikes are made up of lots ot little panels and colours there is no instant 'bike' shape to shout at other drivers.
Interesting yeah makes sense about the motorbikes
My plane is made of wood (mostly) but the glue used is epoxy based, so it, too, had to be painted white.
Frankly, I can't understand homebuilders who decide to paint their epoxy glued planes in dark colors even thou manuals and plans clearly state this is not advisable due to temperature restrictions. I'ts like saying "I want to die in style in a beautifully painted non-airworthy plane".
Interesting thanks!
Gold leaf might be good, bit expensive perhaps, and a bit OTT 🙂
Good call! I love OTT
i like being stealthy... light blue on the underside and dark green and tan tiger stripes on the top side... hahaha
Have you seen SZD - 9 Bocian (SP-3728) from Leszno airport?
In WW2 they were trying to figure out the opposite: how to make aircraft as invisible as possible, especially for people the aircraft is heading towards, with the aircraft against the sky not the ground. And they found the optimum colour was .... brightish white lights along the entire leading edge of the wing. Modern LED strips would be ideal. Even white paint is -- as seen in parts of this video -- much darker than the sky.
Interesting, yes makes sense! Even white gliders are very dark against a bright sky..
If I remember correctly, it was RAE Farnborough which did this experiment. (I used to work there.) They decided that it required excessive electrical power required to make the lights bright enough. I think of this whenever other road users fail to see me in my red car. It's equipped with daytime running lights. 😒
@@robertkeddie when I first got my current red Outback I had a spate of incidents of people failing to see me e.g. waiting to turn right at a T intersection and they'd be turning right into the shaft of the T and aim to drive straight through my passenger door and only swerve at the last moment, giving me a dirty look. When I'd been sitting there not moving tor 10+ seconds. I don't have DRL but now I leave the headlights on low beam permanently (and fortunately all Legacy/Outback/Impreza ever made turn the headlight off when you turn the ignition off). pbs.twimg.com/media/F3NZ9CzaUAAi9oc.jpg
K13s and K8s can be different colours
The first PIK-20 and the Sparrowhawk were yellow
Yesterday I saw a dark blue yellow black K8. It looked like a toy.
Does that blue and orange glider go brap brap brap and like Doritos?
Absolutely!
@Tim If you had to repair a white glider that has gel coat.. would you use gel coat or PU paint color matched?
I'm not sure what's recommended there!
I am curious to see if this changes anytime soon. I see that Diamond Aircraft are now doing their aircraft in colour and I am pretty sure they are made with some form of fibre glass.
Yeah I'm not sure why they don't have that issue too - maybe it's the top facing surface area being so much smaller?
Newer resin systems and higher tempering temperatures seem to allow this. You can nowadays order colored gliders from the factory from Schleicher too. They mentioned new resin systems on their web site allowing these offerings (at additional cost of course :) )
Could you go with Shiny Silver? Just as good if not better at reflecting heat, black body radiation theory states silver should have a slightly higher emissivity. How would silver compare in terms of anti-camouflage?
Also, while were thinking about older gliders, how different are they to fly than modern ones? I've heard they generally like lower IAS, don't have as good glide ratios, but can gain altitude better in thermals. However I've found it very hard to find more information online. Ever flown a wood and fabric glider?
Reflective silver tends to look like the colour of what it is reflecting e.g. the sky or ground. So not a good idea :) They studied it in this accident report
www.kbsz.hu/j25/dokumentumok/2015-157-4%20FR.pdf
I've been in a K13 once, and didn't like it. The main problem is very few wood gliders are designed for tall pilots, and I'm 6'4" 193cm...
So they went from a hard to see against the sky colour (blue) and went to a mostly better, unless your fling near clouds, colour (white). Progress? :-)
Only really commenting because I deliberately went for an offensively (custom) coloured paraglider for SAR reasons.
I have flown a AAFC (Australian Air Force Cadets) DG1000S glider and it is mainly orange, white and grey. This covers the wings and fuselage and in big bits. Does the heat not effect it as much as other gliders?
Interesting, either that particular glider is allowed for some reason, OR someone has done it anyway!
From pictures online it's only the nose that is orange, that's small enough that it's allowed. The wings are white
@@PureGlide They have orange wing tips with grey markings on the wings. There is also more orange and markings on the tail. I have a video of them on my channel.
2:55 The orange markers are a little bit like reflectors for cyclists at night. The effect is limited. What you actually want to do is installing a bright light. For gliders this can be a canopy flasher like demonstrated in the following video: ruclips.net/video/MqbJqzxGpRw/видео.html
Hi 👋🏻
Hello 👋 you're number one!
I know a club who has a red and yellow ask 13. Looks like its a mcdonalds delivery plane...
Very interesting, Thanks Tim.
I was going to ask: “Is the heat tolerance better on carbon-fibre gliders (vs fibreglass)?”
A quick google, reveals that it is the resin (not the fibres) that degrade with heat.
So if you use the same epoxy resin on both, you have the same problem…
Yip exactly right!
Why are noses red then?
Good question! That's an option manufacturers offer for 'visibility'. I personally don't think it helps. Or maybe it's just a for style. The heat isn't a problem on the nose, as it's not a big flat area.
@@PureGlide He wasn't asking about the plane's nose...
:)))
come on.... those cheap glider pilots simply have no money left for color! 😅
That is true in my case! I painted my glider and then after many weeks of work, the thought of paying more time/money for more colours was a big fat "nope" haha
@@PureGlide I must have had a hunch...!!!