Post by David H ThornleyPost by Michael EmrysIn the context of this discussion, it's interesting to note that the
Corsair, which had wings that folded up instead of back, had the
undersurfaces of the outer wing panels painted the same dark shade as
the upper surface.
The Navy didn't use the Corsair much on carriers until 1945, when they
were very touchy about kamikazes. This is the period when they were
painting everything navy blue vertical surfaces and deck blue horizontal
just as fast as they could get the paint, with carriers having
priority.
In 1945, the standard color scheme for USN ship-board aircraft was
overall glossy sea blue - that scheme having been adopted in October, 1944.
Fighters had switched to the overall glossy sea blue scheme in March of
that year.
The previous three color scheme (Non-spectacular sea blue upper
surfaces, non-spectacular intermediate blue on vertical surfaces, and
non-spectacular white undersurfaces) was in effect from February, 1943
through October (March for fighters) 1944.
Post by David H ThornleyThey wanted to make it as hard as possible to spot a carrier from the
air, they were probably very nervous about white underwings.
A carrier would seem a hard thing to miss, quite regardless of the color
its aircraft were painted.
Still, the underwing surfaces which were up when the wings were folded
were painted intermediate blue even under the 1943 scheme - they were
never white - white was reserved undersurfaces which were always down;
with the exception that some aircraft had a small patch of white rather
than intermediate blue on the portion of the vertical fuselage
immediately under the horizontal stabilizer.
