AFC_Ajax00 From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 775 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 1383 times:
I think that those brilliant USAF colors were used in the beginning as sort of a message to get people's attention when they spotted a KC-10 but as soon as they started to be deplyed overseas they were painted
correct me if im wrong,
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Jwenting From Netherlands, joined Apr 2001, 10213 posts, RR: 21 Reply 2, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 1366 times:
You are wrong
The brilliant colours were used when the KC-10s were part of the SAC bombersupport force. They were indeed never meant to operate in hostile airspace then. The bright colours were the normal scheme at the time for SAC non-combat aircraft. Designed to be highly visible (both as PR and so the bomber pilots could more easily spot their tanker), it wass of course less than suitable for use in a combat environment.
Early on, at least some C-141s and C-5s carried a similar scheme. Later they received first European 1 (charcoal black and shades of green) and are now low-viz grey which is the current USAF standard for all aircraft except hospital aircraft, trainers and VIP transports.
IMissPiedmont From United States of America, joined May 2001, 6203 posts, RR: 43 Reply 3, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 1335 times:
I see KC-10s very often and I haven't seen the blue and white in at least 8 years.
What is it with all the "is there a possibilty airline X will.." threads? The answer it'll is possible.
Duce50boom From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1341 times:
The first 20 or so KC-10's were all painted that way. Then SAC wanted to camouflage them for the tactical work and some say, to kind of rein in the 'gucci boy' attitude. So most KC-10's were repainted in the 'Shamu' (like shamu the killer whale at sea world) paint scheme. Out of the 60 (later 59) KC-10's in the fleet they had 6 painted in the white top colors, and the rest in 'shamu'. The reason they kept some with the 'white top' was that back in the day some countries had problems with 'military looking' aircraft on their territory.
And since there were 3 KC-10 bases at the time, March in Southern California, Barksdale in Louisiana, and Seymour-Johnson in North Carolina, there were 2 white tops at each base.
If I'm not mistaken I think that MAC had some of their cargo planes with a similiar looking white top (but didn't look nearly as cool) for the same reason the KC-10 did. I thought both looked cool, (way better than that ugly grey their painted as today) but the white top was way more attractive.
L-188 From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 29350 posts, RR: 62 Reply 5, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 1307 times:
There was a general "greying out" of US military aircraft in the late 80's.
During that time the colorful schemes that where on C-5's, C-141's, EC-135's, and even Navy F-14, F-4, and S-2 aircraft pretty much went away.
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Jwenting From Netherlands, joined Apr 2001, 10213 posts, RR: 21 Reply 7, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 4 days 16 hours ago) and read 1305 times:
That white KC-10 has already been toned down somewhat. They used to have a diagonal blue band with gold stars across the fuselage as well at one time (it's still there over the wing, but it used to be wider and the SAC logo larger if memory serves).
Duce50boom From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 1303 times:
hey dude, i think your talking about the Dutch KDC-10. there hasn't been a white top KC-10 in 3 or 4 years. the KDC-10's are white top with a grey bottom, and a blue stripe running along it's fuselage.
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