Polished alloy on aircraft
 

Just wondered what the process was or is for the highly polished fuselage, wings and propellers on aircraft;

(a) How was the surface brought up to a shine?

(b) How was the shine maintained?

(c) Are there issues with oxidation or corrosion?

(d) These days would there be and issues with highly polished airframes or props?

THIS Should answer your questions.

If I remember correctly, the Royal Flight used to polish the Andover lower fuselages to a mirror finish, it was found during some NDT inspection that a fair amount of the metal had been polished away resulting in the need for extensive reskinning, they than painted the lower half grey.

Little tip when polishing and you remove all the black residue you get, instead of going through a million cloths, use one and put flour, yup that's right, household flour, plain or self rising ;) in the cloth, that will take off and absorb the black residue and speed up the process.

This link is good to read https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...20-%202323.PDF

a) A polishing product such as Wadpol, Wadpol is a tin of fibrous cloth pre-impregnated with polish is used in a rotary motion to the 'bright' areas such as leading edges and intakes. It is then buffed using a rotary buffer such as those used for cars.

b) different products can maintain the shine, but mostly after the finish dulls, re-buff or re-polish is required periodically.

c) the application of polish should not remove too much material so that corrosion preventative coatings are removed i.e alclad

d) Although some operators still have certain aircraft in bare aluminium it is expensive to upkeep looking good, American Airlines have a few in their fleet in retro livery.

or in the RAF doing Royal VC Tens by hand!!!! the whole aircraft!!!