Maybe completely obvious, and known already since WW1, but it really struck home with me during our recent group trip into Spain what color does to conspicuity. We were flying in a relatively loose formation, often not at the same altitude. All of us has light colors except for a burgundy-red one. We very often lost track of that aircraft, obviously when it flew lower, and while not even that far away.
So particularly in the circuit, where aircraft converge, it must make a lot of difference.
Composite aircraft would have a light color anyway, to prevent the plastic to overheat, but wait, Diamond has changed the chemistry such that a completely dark aircraft is an option, at least for the DA42, DA62 and DA50. They look stunning, and I would not be surprised that they sell well. This may even become a trend for other plastic planes.
I would personally not choose a dark color, or at least make sure that large parts of the aircraft are bright. To each his own of course in a trade-off between looks and safety..
Gliders flying in competitions have to have some markings, typically red or orange and typically at the wingtips and somewhere on the tail or so. White from above and dark from below should do the trick in regards of visibility.
So stop polishing the underside and just leave it oily and muddy rusty-brown, and thus raising visibility! 
White wings with markings at the end and a colored fuselage should give good visibility. And yes, it does a lot whether an aircraft is highly visible or not..
My plane is dark grey and red and I found out that a dark color is far better visible but now I realize that’s from below…
IMHO white as base color is still the best – by far. As it doesn’t occur in nature all that much (excepting snow and ice of course and some salt lakes out here) it’s a natural ‘eye catcher’.
I am amazed to see planes in dark colours. They must get incredibly hot inside when parked. Maybe it is ok with pressured ones, which have a load of thermal insulation.
@aart ,
The Royal Air Force did a comprehensive investigation into the best colour for visual acquisition of aircraft in the air in the UK. I recall that black was the best colour in most circumstances, otherwise bright yellow – strobes were most noticable in poor visibility. All their training aircraft are now painted black with yellow stripes/flashes and have high intensity strobe lights.
Regards, SD..
PilotX wrote:
My plane is dark grey and red and I found out that a dark color is far better visible but now I realize that’s from below…
skydriller wrote:
I recall that black was the best colour in most circumstances,
Yes, from below that makes sense. From above, not so much.
Paint the upper side white and the lower black. Like fighters in WW2 just the other way around. No problems with heat in the sun and the engine can burn all the oil it wants without leaving stains.
I was reflecting the same last spring during our tour around Sweden, also in loose formation, and I kept losing sight of the completely white plane ~1NM in front to my right slightly above. The red+grey stripes along the fuselage made exactly zero difference.
No problem when above, white giving a good contrast to the greenery.
Clipperstorch wrote:
Paint the upper side white and the lower black.Or some sort of sharp markings at the wings tips or something.
172driver wrote:
MHO white as base color is still the best – by far. As it doesn’t occur in nature all that much (excepting snow and ice of course and some salt lakes out here) it’s a natural ‘eye catcher’
That would be even more true for all pink aircraft (ok, except some flamingos and a quite famous lake – but both of these you should also avoid while flying). So let’s paint all of our rides pink! ;-)
