Random F-16 question

[Darren Roberts]

I'm putting the decals on an F-16A and wondered why the warning stenciling is in orange. Every other US aircraft is in red or yellow. What was the thinking behind using orange? 

[habu2]

I've seen them in orange, yellow, off-white and gray.  No idea why they had so many variations.

[jenshb]

My guess is to reduce the intensity of colours to help with reducing overall visual signature against the grey.  The orange shouldn't be a bright, luminius orange, but a bit washed out.  The Israeli aircraft have "proper" yellow Rescue arrows and red warnings, but the difference in visual signature against the camouflage is less than against the grey background.

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

I just re-did my early Vermont F-16A and was trying to figure it out....best guess on those short-lived triangles and many of the other 16A markings is that it was DayGlo Orange.  (?)

[scotthldr]

They weren’t day-glo, it was more of a Peach colour.

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

1 hour ago, scotthldr said:

They weren’t day-glo, it was more of a Peach colour.

 

Fair enough, just a good guess for lack of alternatives; figured it had a sorta fluorescenty quality....

[Quixote74]

3 hours ago, Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy said:

I just re-did my early Vermont F-16A and was trying to figure it out....best guess on those short-lived triangles and many of the other 16A markings is that it was DayGlo Orange.  (?)

 

I wouldn't exactly call them "short lived," as from what I can tell the "orange" data was standard on all US F-16s from initial production up to right around 1992 (at least some Block 40s had it).  It may have appeared on export birds even longer.

 

I think @jenshb is probably correct in his suggestion that the colors are meant to be low-contrast versions of the standard markings.  In fact it seems the orange color was used in place of Insignia Red for the ejection triangles and turbine warning stripe, while standard FS33538 Insignia Yellow (itself an orange-yellow color) seems to have been "toned down" to a very pale yellow/off-white color for the rescue arrows.  I'm not sure which exact airframe had them first, but I'm confident the "low contrast" color data markings originated with the FSD batch at the same time the standard Hill Gray camouflage scheme was developed.

 

It never occurred to me before Andrew's question to look it up, but as far as I can tell there doesn't seem to be any addendum to TO 1-1-4 to document this variation and confirm the FS colors used (or any other applicable standard).  I did find a camouflage paint diagram for the Greek "Aegean Ghost" scheme that quotes FS 595 numbers as follows:

- Orange FS 32356

- Yellow FS 23617

Not sure of the original source, but I believe the diagram was either produced by GD/Lockheed Martin or drawn up based on their original data.

 

 

For the record, it appears the "color" data was replaced on USAF F-16s by using the contrasting gray color(s) for these markings starting circa 1991-92.  At first I expected the change to correspond with the switch from "Hill Gray I" (three-tone gray with FS36375 undersides) to the current two-tone FS36118 over FS36270 scheme ("Hill II").  But it appears for at least a 2-3 year period the three-gray scheme was used with the all-gray data.  By about 1993-94 the two-gray scheme was standard for new-builds.  Depending when and how the various depots adopted the new standards, there may be a few examples of the Hill II scheme with the color data, but those would definitely be a rarity.