Why Boeing Aircraft are FIRST Painted Green for Your Safety 

Even if you have an existing account, *you* *can* *still* *get* *a* *premium* *vehicle* Just click here: playwt.link/NotWhatYouThink Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Also, Alclad is "corrosion-free" because it's 𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙙. Corrosion is literally the conversion of a pure metal into a stable metal oxide, and Alclad's "protective layer" is, as you said, aluminum oxide.

Everyone knows a new car smell, *but are you ready for a new plane smell?*

While black paints impact on the air conditioning is fairly irrelevant at cruising altitude, the UV light absorption and associated heat is not. Parts heat up and expand due to that heat, from either UV radiation or friction, then those parts change shape. That is why typically aircraft companies only allow white paint on Wings and control surfaces. You can design for the way different colors cause your wings to act, but it is much simpler just make everyone have white wings and make the airline figure out how to incorporate the white wings into the the paint design.

"But Russian manufacturers paint them in yellow. We're actually not sure why." Well, since the only reason to spend the money and effort to make the yellow zinc chromate green is worker safety, I think you found your answer.

"Which is equivalent to about eight passengers, or six Americans. I'm joking of course. Three Americans." He's out of line, but he's right.

Aircraft Factory Workers: **get cancer from work** Radium Dial Workers: *“First time?”*

As an American, I found your joke about our weight to be hilarious, well done.

"About 1200 pounds less, which is equivalent to about 8 passengers, or 6 Americans - I'm joking of course... 3 Americans!" I did not expect to crack up during this video. Well done, sir.

9:10 I see what you did there, and I'm appalled. That's TWO Americans, buddy! Give us the credit we deserve!

The SR-71 Blackbird, for example, was painted black because the color actually helped to radiate more heat away from the plane as air drag and compression heated it up to immense temperatures

Just as an aside, it used to be (no longer sure if it is the case because it has been a while) that one of the primer coats on US nuclear submarines was yellow. Basically the same yellow that you see in one part of the clip here in the paint can. This got covered by a layer of adhesive and then the tile coating... but for a while we all walked around singing the Beatles song ;)

I work for an airline company just across the runway from American's Tulsa Heavy Maintenance facility, and I know a bunch of American Airlines A&P and engineering guys. They tell me that the reason American started painting their aircraft is because the carbon fiber body aircraft MUST be painted to protect the material from the elements. But American did not want half their fleet in one livery, and the other half in another, so they started painting all the aircraft to keep the look uniform across the entire fleet.

The green on the exterior of Boeing planes is an acrylic coating that protects the skin panels during the assembly process. It gets stripped off prior to painting. All aluminum exterior panels are anodized, which forms a layer off oxidation that protects the top layer of each skin panel. Anodizing is used extensively in aircraft manufacturing.

My favorite part was the C° 🤝 F°. I'm glad that they can agree on at least one thing. 11:43

It's surprising just how often airplane's paint gets stripped off and then painted back on

you also have to paint CF because epoxy is UV sensitive. and a lot of places you see "that carbon fiber" look, have extra steps to cover the CF in something not transparent to UV but translucent for visible light (which is more expensive than paint) that or they make it out of CF, and then use a hydrographic water transfer to cover it with a picture of CF, so you think you are seeing CF, and it is CF, but your arnt actually seeing the CF.

The green tinted coating on new unpainted Boeing aircraft is a temporary acrylic coating. The individual skin panels come already coated from suppliers. This is standard for almost all aluminum sheet metal. The corrosion protection primer BMS 10-11 comes in both green and yellow. I have many pairs of jeans stained with the stuff.

5:34 ahh yeah the world famous bomber the f4U corsair

I thought the Aloha Air accident was due to repeated stress due to many more rakeoff/landing cycles that a short distance aircraft experiences compared to industry norms.

What gets missed here is that the carbon fiber re-inforced plastic of the 787 needs to be painted because it will degrade under the UV rays of sunlight, so that would be the reason you won't see pretty black carbon fiber planes.

Carbon fiber construction is not corrosion immune as suggested here. You are right that it is much better, but there is still a huge importance placed on galvanic corrosion. Carbon fiber is conductive afterall, so dissimilar materials can pose a huge problem. However, it is a big difference in the amount of money spent combating corrosion like you mentioned.

the translucent green shades on the fuselages of the aluminum Boeings is an anodize coating, it's not paint. It's cleaned with a solvent before painting. The pastel green coating is Hexavalent chrome, which is very toxic... the white interior paint is epoxy white, used to help prevent corrosion from the lavatories leaking and such.

As a college kid in the 1960s, I worked in a paint shop at Boeing's Renton plant, building 727s, 720s, and C-135 "looking glass" versions of the 707. Everything that came through our shop was painted zinc chromate green, but Boeing referred to it as SRF, meaning solvent resistant finish, no reference to corrosion resistance which it must have also been.

8:00: That green coating being washed off is a water soluble covering added before transit from Kansas to Washington. It is not zinc chromate primer.

10:17 If I’m not mistaken, the reason the rudder is painting is so that it’s perfectly calibrated in the factory and can’t do so if it’s painted in the regular paint shop like everything else. The primary reason is not that it’s a composite

Heat does affect aircraft structures. When the B-29 was built in Georgia during WWII the plant had to be air-conditioned. The heat was bad for the workers and the aluminum expanded too much resulting in loose rivets when the aluminum was cold.

I made parts for Boeing, fairings, molar flares, lens housings ect. that green exterior layer is a semi-gummy protective layer to help resist scratches. We would polish the parts to a high shine on the exterior face, and paint the anti corrosion color on the inside (which always smelled like roasted peanuts to me for some reason) and then spray the polished side with this gummy green paint and then wrap in blue film and foam for shipping. At the 8 minute mark they are hosing the plane down to reveal the polished exterior side with what probably Acetone which is what we would use if we messed up the protective coating and had to spray again. Just wish the job paid more, was a good gig but doesn't matter much if it doesn't pay the bills.

What you are seeing is the primer coating. While the yellow/green/and sometimes brown color of these primer coatings come from the added chromate corrosion inhibitors (Barium Chromate and Strontium Chromate are modern choices), the primary function of this coating is not to be the main corrosion inhibition mechanism. Aluminums are already treated with a chromate based chemical conversion coat BEFORE this green coating is applied. They've simply added chromates to the primer in order to help corrosion performance even further. The main purpose of the coating is to adhere to the metal with a strong bond because paints and pigments generally do not. It is also designed to be abrasive resistant, scratch resistant, flake resistant, impact resistant, and it is intended to provide a physical barrier (not just chemical) to keep electrolytes and oxygen away from the aluminum metal. In the case of fuel tank interiors, it needs to also be chemically stable against the harmful fuel additives as well. Then the topcoat goes on which protects the plane even further, though that's the layer that's primarily intended to be pigmented and provides less protection than the primer. The interiors are primed but not painted because the physical barrier against abrasion, scratching, moisture, and other mechanical damage from human interaction helps as well.

The dark green you see on 737 fuselages on freight cars and prior to assembly is a temporary coating which is washed off before painting, not zinc chromate primer.

Pretty cool seeing WestJet being used as the painting example. They always have a few 737's parked near the vehicle exit at YEG terminal; and I know an instrument tech that works for them.

Air New Zealand paints the first aircraft of each model series black, I.E the first A320 to enter service was black, all other A320 are white.

At times, the different colors of zinc chromate were used to indicate how many coats of primer had been applied. Yellow might have been first, followed by a coat of green, for example.

"Which is equivalent to 6 Americans, I'm joking of course, 3 Americans" killed me

The air newzealand planes look sick

when you started the Warthunder section of the video, i was thinking "ugh not again'' and i was about to change to a different video, but when you said Warthunder, it struck! i play that all the time! not even 5 minutes away!

4:14 I love how those planes in production are Ryanair lol

So that dark green coating on the exterior of Boeing airplanes it's called a temporary protective coating "TPC" as you included, It is not a paint it's removable with solvent. Is to protect the thin clad aluminum on the exterior during manufacturing. Typically Yellow corrosion protection is used in fuel tank areas, green and on fuel tank areas.

Thank you for answering one of the questions I always wanted to know the answer to

And to think you got popular with your shorts, this was far more informative than any half hour show on the discovery channel, good job.

"I'm joking of course... 3 Americans" lmfao

The Mach 2 Concorde was always white to keep it cool. It still stretched 6 to 10 inches in length due to this thermal expansion.

I want to see a rgb plane because disco and balanced speculations for “durability”

Small world, I was suggested this video while waiting for the first coat of greenish yellow zinc chromate aluminum primer to dry on a batch of my Guitar amplifier chassis and panels.

Very informative, thanks. I never knew that beautiful shiny metallic green in fresh-from-the-factory aircraft was paint. I somehow thought the special alloys manufacturers would use nowadays perhaps had that colour naturally. My knowledge on aircraft cladding stops at WW2 Aluminium!

ryanair landing gear is made out of bedrock

The Boeing aircraft you are referring to are actually are coated with a lacquer to protect the outside metal from scratches during the manufacture and transportation. It's referred to as Spray Lac or Spray Lat, depending who you ask.This coating is removed just before the airplane is painted. Even after first test flights. This is why airplanes can be seen flying with this coating on.

0:41 that railroad crossing is in my old city of renton, washington! Theres a park to the left and apartments in front.

super cool seeing that old school American livery on the 737. I've actually piloted that aircraft shown at 0:20!

Simple. The green plumage is the hatchling colors. When they mature they’ll take on the adult coloration.

I’m an a&p apprentice and work mostly on 40-50yo aircraft. A lot of them have the yellow primer but we clean and then spray the surfaces with green primer following a coat of dinotrol. It’s amazing how little corrosion these planes have

Your humor as always gets me

Me when war thunder: -1000 silver lion

8:46 Aluminium Oxyde technically isn't corrosion-resistant. It is simply already oxydized (corroded) which means that it cannot be corroded any further

Thank you very much!!! The story of the zinc chromate green and yellow was very interesting even for an aircraft modeller like me. Your explanation solved many questions I had on the subject. Would it be perhaps possible to make a video and explain why such a sharp difference between shiny aluminium and dull aluminium - magnesium panels on the B-36s and even on early B-52s? The magnesium was a lot used on the B-36 apparently, how is that possible? If I remember correctly magnesium is highly flammable! Anyway, a big thank you for your nice videos!

Great video and research. I had no idea what was the history of the Green Zinc Chromate coating.

Just recently subscribed to your channel and glad to see aviation being focus on this weeks videos!

As someone who works for Boeing (spirit aerosystems) I see these big green “pickles” daily and deal with them constantly, the paint is still highly carcinogenic😅

I watched another video recently regarding the painting of aircraft. It said that tests by U.S. Army Air Corp during WWII concluded that painted aircraft required considerably less power to maintain cruising compared to unpainted, bare aluminum. The weight of the extra fuel required was a few times more than the weight of the paint. I'll have to search and try to find that link.

It's fun to see scenes from around the Boeing 737 plant down the hill from my house. Yes, sometimes I have to wait at railroad crossings to watch green fuselages travel to the plant for final assembly.

"The fight against corrosion began with automobiles..." *sad pre-dreadnought noises*

"which is equivalent to 8 passengers, or -6 americans- 3 americans" 😂😂💀

It's off for it's first permenant paint job, that green surface finish washes off with solvent. I used to paint brand new aircraft with this temp sf on. The yellow was an epoxy primer which had to be re-done due to moisture absorbsion by the time it arrived anywhere.

Aircraft become really hot while on the ground. I know; I used to work on them. While it sits at the gate, the surface can get really hot under full sun. While in flight, it gets really cold. The hot-cold cycle of each flight fatigues the aircraft over time. Painting it white reduces the temperature range between on-the-ground and in-flight, resulting in longer life than if it had been painted dark. We even received a company-wide email with this rationale from Boeing advocating our airline (and others) switch to white. This was close to 20 yrs ago; just a few years after 9/11.

The "3 Americans" joke made my day!! Thanks!!

I have the biggest grin on my face because something mentioned New Zealand.

I've been wondering this since my childhood!!!!! Thank you!!!!

Literally went to the airport shown in the opening B-roll just the other day for a flight lesson. Pretty interesting to see all the “naked” planes out on the tarmac.

"Black planes are rare" Me, a New Zealander: "that's news to me"

War thunder is a game were suffering is... The game. But we still play it because we like to suffer.

Your shorts are alright, but I really love your long form videos!

Having worked in the aircraft industry for a few years, I believe you are talking about zinc chromate primer, you say yellow but it looked like it was more of a chartreuse ( slightly greenish yellow). I paused the video to add my comment, posted just before you said it.

I guess that the "interior green" of WWII US planes was because of zinc chromate plus the need to avoid yellow for a more eye-relaxing green. Also, Japan used a sort of turquoise similar to the Soviet planes interior.

There's benefit in cleaning/polish in fuel savings. I knew a 747 pilot who swore up and down about American waxing their 747s saving something stupid like 10% fuel and flying faster.

I was a structural maintenance guy in the Air Force and we used to get parts for our F-15s like that. We had to prime and paint them to go on the planes.

Yes, primer on an aircraft is there to prevent corrosion/oxidation but also a huge reason is also to act as an insulative layer between bare metal surfaces. This is especially critical in tank (fuel tanks of wings). In addition to this special in tank primer, most fasteners inside of the wings get cap sealed to insulate them further from the inevitable lighting strikes and St Elmo's fire that transport category aircraft are certified to endure. All of this falling under the category of EME (electromagnetic effects). EME and corrosion are specialized areas of aerospace engineering set up to establish the specifications and manufacturing processes designed to keep a plane flying safely over the course of it's useful 20+yr life before fatigue sets in. Composite and traditional metallic structures have drastically different standards to accomplish safe electrical bonding between surfaces and assemblies.

I build scale model airplanes, and the interior of every plane from WWII is painted either zinc chromate yellow, zinc chromate green, or a combination of the two. RAF planes have their own interior green color, as do Russian planes. The colors simply called "RAF Interior Green" or "Russian Interior Blue/Green". The amount of money I've spent on bottles of these colors is insane. So glad to see a video explaining why this is done.

i swear the videos get hornier

Even composites require either coating or pigmentation. Usually coating is preferred to pigmentation for high performance composites as pigmentation may interfere with the bonding of the resin to the fibers. The coating is needed to provide protection from surface corrosion due to ultraviolet light which will attack the resins used in the composites. The downside to this is it can make inspection more difficult.

I was a painter at American airlines in the 90s. The people buffing the aircraft were having shoulder problems. I watched the trials of the robot buffer on a 727. It really sucked! But not hard enough to stick to the plane with suction cups.

5:36 The Vought F4U Corsair was not a bomber aircraft, it was a fighter. Sure, it carried bombs and rockets in case it needed to perform strike roles, but that still doesn't make it a bomber.

11:00 cabin humidity? How do composites affect cabin humidity? Is it because now we can have higher humidity in the air without worrying about corrosion on the plane?

Great video, IMO. I learned a lot. Thank you. ☮

I’ve seen the green fuselages on trains, going through Montana. I believe they are manufactured in Wichita Kansas, then shipped to Renton Washington.

Hexavalent chromium is highly carcinogenic. Interestingly, a different form of chromium, in tiny quantities, is an essential nutrient.

6:00 If I had a nickel for each time classified military documents were leaked on War Thunder I'd have 6 nickels. Which isn;t a lot but it's weird it's happened 6 times.

You never disappoint. Each video is a real banger.

The aloha airlines incident also had the two part glue that is used to atached the panels on the airframe had also become old and failed new and better glues are used today.

Black painted planes WILL get hotter when they are parked or aren't at 30 000 feet. If maintenance is taking place in a open area and not a hangar the workers will get melted from that heat.

American airlines = built different

Locomotives are still often painted pink with anti-corrosion layer before receiving their top coats

You can see a few unit numbers on the 737s including 4508 and 7260 My first was 6369 so 7260 I probably worked on and joined sometime in 2019

"The most capable carrier-based bombers of World War 2... wore pink underneath!" And they were made by ladies too, don't forget!

I got mad when he made the joke about Americans' weight but he saved himself with that correction.

One of your best videos!

Circuit boards are green for the same reason! nobody likes staring at something super close-up for a long time, so the green helps.

Hehe... premature failure... That's how we call it then huh ?

I play a lot of war thunder. The mouse aim flight is the bounciest crap ever, often makes it so you can completly miss things and can't be turned off.

army, uses Black and Yellow paints. Mixed they make Olive Drab. "The Telephone" company used to use them too, but not anymore. That is why most military vehicles of the Army have other designations in black or Yellow.

Composites still suffer from fatigue. It just takes such a higher number of load cycles to failure that it's effectively a non-issue during the plane's entire life - theoretically.