Thread 2056231

Why don't they anodize aluminum aircraft? Surely it would be many pounds lighter.

>>2056231 (OP)
how are you gonna dip an entire fucking plane to anodize it
you'll need a fucking river worth of acid

>>2056233
Do it piece by piece?

>>2056231 (OP)
Does anodizing make stuff lighter? I thought it was just a way to rustproof it more nicely (and easier to dye it) than bluing

>>2056241
airplane paint is heavy. like 1000 lbs

Return to plain plane

They do don't they?
Like the wings aren't painted

>>2056244
As I understood it, they started doing that to save fuel but the savings were eaten up by increased maintenance costs.
And then there was also that study done during WWII that found that unpainted B-17s were slower and less fuel efficient than painted ones because exposed riveting increased aerodynamical drag.

>>2056291
Nonsense. Unpainted points are slower because red makes it go faster.

>>2056292
Meanwhile every airliner is white nowadays.

>>2056311
das racist

>>2056292
AUGHT BOYZ, DIS GIT IS A PROPPA GENIUS

the paint on planes improves aerodynamics and protects the surface from wear and those two benefits far outweigh the loss in efficiency from the weight, but entirely for the economical reasons
it is more efficient to fly without paint, the aerodynamic benefit of paint filling in all the teeny tiny little gaps and imperfections and smoothing out the transitions of surfaces isnt enough to overcome that benefit of weight savings on its own
but the added durability and resistance to corrosion (aluminum DOES corrode just not like iron/steel does) means the maintenance cost is lower

>>2056423
Also anything composite needs paint so the resin doesn't get degraded from UV exposure

>>2056292
>not yellow
Poorgrots need not zoggin' apply

Akchually the best paint for plane performance isn't paint at all, but a layer of replica shark scales.