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Why The Black Dot On The Nose Cone?  
User currently offline22886 From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2001, 391 posts, RR: 0
Posted (11 years 10 months 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1714 times:

Why did most airliners in the 70's and 80's have a black dot on the nose cone or a black nose cone with a black patch under the cockpit?

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Photo © Eduard Marmet



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Photo © Jörg Tegen


Why does Alitalia still have the black dot on the nose?cone?

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Photo © Luis Rosa




3 replies: All unread, jump to last
 
User currently offlineFlight152 From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 3292 posts, RR: 7
Reply 1, posted (11 years 10 months 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1681 times:

The black patch over the cockpit was anti-glare paint to keep the sun out of the pilots eyes. You don't see it anymore because it is not "pretty".

User currently offlineNotar520AC From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 1606 posts, RR: 4
Reply 2, posted (11 years 10 months 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1670 times:

The reason for the balck instead of the silver paint on the first photo is becuase you cannot paint a metallic paint over the radome. For some reason it affects the radar so most airlines paint it a different color than the base color if the paint is metallic.

-Notar520AC


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User currently offlineJetguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR:
Reply 3, posted (11 years 10 months 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1666 times:

According to the instructors in two different weather radar courses that I have attended, it had to do with the transmissivity (electronic transparency) of the radiomen. Up until the 1980's, the typical paints used on aircraft had very poor radar transmissivity. The paint which had the best properties for the radar just so happened to be black (or I think, gray). Now days, the paint manufacturers have improved their products to the point where it isn't a big factor anymore and you can paint radomes in just about any color.

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