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Old 15th Mar 2014, 16:07
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Haraka
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
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As always the US led, and still lead, the way on camo to defeat sensors of various kinds, including Mk.1 eyeball and IR
British Aircraft camouflaging started in 1907 with dazzle painting on the wings of a Dunne D1 biplane, with the khaki green upper surface camouflage coming in during 1916. By this time, the Germans were using close patterned dots to give a grey shade illusion leading on to full multi-colour camouflage and the extremely innovative hexagonal camouflage by 1917, using basically pointillist theory to provide an illusion to match the background ( be it land, sea or air ). This, incidentally, is a direct precursor in theory to the digital camouflage systems of the last 20 years or so. They also experimented with optical stealth using transparent coverings on aircraft .
The United States of course, totally lacking an aircraft industry of any consequence in WW1, used British and French aircraft when they finally entered the conflict in 1917 .These usually retained their British and French designed camouflage schemes, with American national markings merely placed over the positioning of the French or British originator's cockades, the USA not having got to the stage of implementing its own aircraft camouflage schemes during that conflict, nor , indeed for many years after.

Last edited by Haraka; 15th Mar 2014 at 16:39.
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