Simviation Forum - Black Nose Paint

Jun 23^rd, 2006 at 6:32pm

cheesegrater Ex Member

Why do so many aircraft have the area between the cockpit windows and the nose cone painted black? Is it because it makes the aircraft look better or is there some other reason? Interestingly only old liveries have this feature.

Here are some examples:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0750112/L/

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0256974/M/

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0542096/M/

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0341297/M/

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0879236/M/

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Reply #1 - Jun 23^rd, 2006 at 6:42pm

Woodlouse2002 Offline
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To reduce sun glare from the normal glossy paint reflecting off the nose and into the pilots eyes.

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Reply #2 - Jun 23^rd, 2006 at 9:20pm

SkyNoz Offline
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Yah pretty much just used as a anit-glare sheild against the sun on flights, like how football players put the marks under their eyes to block sun light. It's the same way used in aviation, to prevent glare or briteness from occuring. 8)

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Reply #3 - Jun 24^th, 2006 at 3:34am

Hagar Offline
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Quote:

Yah pretty much just used as a anit-glare sheild against the sun on flights, like how football players put the marks under their eyes to block sun light.

I always wondered why they do that. I thought it was to make them look fierce. Roll Eyes

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Reply #4 - Jun 24^th, 2006 at 11:59am

beaky Offline
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You'll also see it on multi-engine planes for the same reason... the inside faces of the nacelles are often black, so if the crew is looking that way, to spot bogeys or friendly traffic, or just to look at the engines, they won't get blinded if the sun hits the metal just so...

Black stripes on the wings (anticipating another question) indicate a walkway... usually this paint is textured and/or rubberized so you don't slip and/or step on some fragile part of the wing while inspecting or working on the plane while on the ground.

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Reply #5 - Jun 24^th, 2006 at 4:05pm

Woodlouse2002 Offline
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Quote:

Black stripes on the wings (anticipating another question) indicate a walkway... usually this paint is textured and/or rubberized so you don't slip and/or step on some fragile part of the wing while inspecting or working on the plane while on the ground.

Or, if on the leading edges of the wings n fins it is I believe antiice paint of some description.

Woodlouse2002 PITA and BAR!!!!!!!!&&&&Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the Act made in the first year of King George the First for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King.&&&&Viva la revolution!

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Reply #6 - Jun 24^th, 2006 at 4:11pm

Hagar Offline
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Quote:

Or, if on the leading edges of the wings n fins it is I believe antiice paint of some description.

Not paint but usually a rubber boot.

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Reply #7 - Jun 24^th, 2006 at 4:14pm

Woodlouse2002 Offline
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Quote:

Not paint but usually a rubber boot.

Ah. It was paint on all my models. Grin

Woodlouse2002 PITA and BAR!!!!!!!!&&&&Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the Act made in the first year of King George the First for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King.&&&&Viva la revolution!

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Reply #8 - Jun 24^th, 2006 at 4:15pm

Nexus Offline
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It's not paint.
It's inflatable De-ice surfaces.
You inflate them with bleed air and the built up ice cracks and falls off.
Only drawback is that if you use it too soon they wont work, you must have ice on the leading edge since.

You can also use electric heat instead of bleed air (obviously it wont inflate), but common for both systems are that you cant have them running for longer periods.

Edit: corrected sucky grammar, sorry (Ozzy is porbably going haywire now...) Grin

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Reply #9 - Jun 24^th, 2006 at 4:23pm

Hagar Offline
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Quote:

Ah. It was paint on all my models. Grin

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Reply #10 - Jun 24^th, 2006 at 11:48pm

Mushroom_Farmer Offline
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Woody!!!!

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Reply #11 - Jun 25^th, 2006 at 4:45am

Ivan Offline
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Its more like a fashion statement nowadays... most planes dont need it anymore.

- Krasair Il-96 is just for livery consistency (if you look at the reflections there is no difference), nose angle doesnt need a glare reducer
- John Travolta plane is for historic accuracy but they managed to do it with the correct paint type
- AA Astrojet... that one needs it for sure. Normal livery has the white/red stripes on that position
- Convair: long nose
- Tu-154... depends on operator, Czech Airforce has a fully white nose

Russian planes: IL-76 (all standard length ones), Tu-154 and Il-62, Tu-134 and An-24RV&&&&AI flightplans and repaints can be found here

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Reply #12 - Jun 26^th, 2006 at 1:14am

cheesegrater Ex Member

Quote:

It's not paint.
It's inflatable De-ice surfaces.
You inflate them with bleed air and the built up ice cracks and falls off.
Only drawback is that if you use it too soon they wont work, you must have ice on the leading edge since.

You can also use electric heat instead of bleed air (obviously it wont inflate), but common for both systems are that you cant have them running for longer periods.

Edit: corrected sucky grammar, sorry (Ozzy is porbably going haywire now...) Grin

Okay, I'm imagining black ballons inflating inflight and dislodging the ice.

Are you talking about the nose or the wings?

Anyways I think it is a cool fashion statement.

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Reply #13 - Jun 26^th, 2006 at 7:20pm

Nexus Offline
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Cheesegrater, I wrote leading edge in my message.
Now I'll leave it up to you to decide weither it's the nose or the wings I mean. Roll Eyes

A small edit:
"How Do De-icers Work?
De-ice boots prevent the accumulation of ice by breaking it up or melting it at the leading edge surfaces. The most commonly used de-icing systems are pneumatic and electrothermal systems. Pneumatic systems are primarily used for fixed wing de-icing. Pneumatic systems typically use air pressure that is generated from either an engine driven pump or turbine compressor.

This inflates a chamber, which stretches the de-icer surface to break the adhesive interface between the ice and the de-icer. Electrothermal de-icers are heated elements bonded to propellers and engine inlets to prevent ice build-up. Ice Shield De-icing Systems offer options in both of these types of systems."

You learn somethign everyday, eh Wink

« Last Edit: Jun 26^th, 2006 at 9:59pm by Nexus »

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Reply #14 - Jun 27^th, 2006 at 9:40am

RitterKreuz Offline
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yep - and note that some aircraft with tail mounted engines like the cessna citation will have heated wings AND de-ice boots.

The heated wing portion is on the leading edge of the inboard portion of the wing ahead of the engine intakes which prevents ice chunks from flying into the intakes. (Boots leave big chunks of ice to fly off into the slipstream)

one thing to consider about de-ice boots is "Ice Bridging". You have to actually wait for quite a bit of ice to accumulate before inflating the de-ice boots... if you inflate them too frequently in moderate icing conditions the ice will start to develop in the shape of the actual inflated boot creating a small void between the deflated boot surface and the ice - next time you inflate the boots they only serve to fill this void and do nothing to remove ice!

its pretty cool to watch de-ice boots work. the ice chunks just blast off into the slipstream at 250 knots

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