This is why new Boeing aircraft have been painted green – Jalopnik

At first glance, a freshly built Boeing 737 seems to have a strange green patchwork work that may look like a sloppy painting from a sketchy store. In reality, the green coating on newly assembled Boeing aircraft serves a crucial goal, a goal that helps the aircraft intact and to keep its passengers safe.

The paint is not really green. No, you are not color blind. The paint is yellow out of the box and acts as an anti-corrosive primer, so that the aircraft cannot corrode. This zinc chromaat coating first used in the car industry by Ford in the 1920s, and later in commercial and military aircraft turning from yellow to green when Lampblack is added and offers resistance to the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

Modern aircraft are made with the help of Alclad, an aluminum alloy that is naturally corrosion -resistant and is incredibly strong and durable, making it perfect for building planes. Nevertheless, aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing apply anti-corrosive primer to add an extra protective layer. These guarantees against long -term corrosion and helps to minimize the risk of metal fatigue, which could weaken the structure and ultimately be catastrophic.

If you have ever seen a plane in his ‘birthday suit’, you may have noticed different shades of green over the surface. This is because different components are made by different manufacturers, or by different divisions within the same company, which can use a different brand primer, resulting in color differences. Some parts of unpaved surfaces are also in white or beige; These are components made of composite materials that do not corrode and therefore do not require the zinc chromaat coating.

The next step in the aircraft building process is to apply the paint, and the ZINK-Chromate Coating also plays an important role here. The primer helps to bind the paint to the aircraft structure, apart from the primary role of preventing corrosion. Boeing uses a dark green primer, while Airbus and Gulfstream use olive and light green respectively as their primers.

The tail of an airplane is often painted for the rest of the plane, because the vertical stabilizer plays a crucial role in the airplane’s aerodynamics, so it must have the right weight and balance. The rest of the plane is then painted on the primer, usually in white. The logo and livrei of the airline are then added and finally a layer of clearcoat. Aircraft usually cost $ 175,000 to $ 200,000 to paint, where top manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus control their own painting facilities and at the same time outsource work to specialized aircraft paint companies.

Painting an aircraft is, as expected, a long and difficult process, which usually takes one to two weeks to complete. However, an aircraft is not only painted once in its life, because periodic maintenance is needed to ensure that there is no corrosion, while it also retains its aesthetic attraction. It usually has to be painted again every six years, whereby the old paint is stripped and the entire process is repeated – including the re -applying of the green primer.