Originally Posted by Innomonate
It was named after Phil Barley, a scientist in the Defensive Weapons Department at Farnborough who worked on camouflage (and, I think, the "anti-camouflage" black colour scheme for trainer aircraft).
Had the great pleasure of meeting with Mr Barley in my office at MoD, on the subject of aircraft camouflage.
The thrust of the discussion was not Camouflage, or Concealment, but Deception ... as now manifested in the [patented?] CF-18 underside cockpit painting.
With BVR mx, there's no game to play, but in a fur-ball at high speed, any colour/pattern distraction or confusion could be beneficial. Sadly, we never got beyond that first meeting, as my Department was closed down with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and any intense interest in CCD and Survivability. I wonder is anyone does that these days?