"Why Are Rockets White?" Topic

guntruck.com/Lacrosse.html

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Why are American Cold War missiles usually painted white?

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com

Easier to see against a nights sky I would think.

Interesting question.

I found this:

"The Saturn V's iconic black and white paint scheme is a remnant of its German roots. When Wernher von Braun and his rocket engineer colleagues tested early prototypes of the Vergentungswaffe Zwei or V2, they painted a large black and white checkered pattern on its skin. This helped them see any roll the rocket gained around its vertical axis during launch"

Not sure it helps much.

I suspect it would have to do with temperature control, may of the early fuel mixtures were more than a bit temperamental.

It was the`50`s.
Everything was in black and white back then!

Seriously though the "von Braun" answer is probably the correct one, the early German engineers painted their prototypes in black and white for visibility reasons and continued to do so when they were later working for the US Army and NASA.

And bureaucracies being what they are it just got to be a habit nobody questioned.

I might be wrong but I think it just seems that way. While it could be related to detecting fuel leaks and temperature control I think most of the pictures of the missile are of test firings. These would have markings to aid in the testing with little concern for concealment. This would be especially true in the case of Lacrosse since testing began in 1954 but it wasn't deployed until 1959 and was withdrawn in 1964. I don't think it ever really stopped testing and development since it had a pretty complicated and difficult development.

Here is a picture of a Lacrosse missile that is not painted white

Think of Honest John. In quite a few of the models and photos the rocket is white but in many pictures of it in service it's green. It lasted far longer then Lacrosse and was more widely deployed so more in service pictures.

I should add it might also reflect the image the PR people selecting the photos wanted to project. In the 1950's and 60's that was clean and modern hence white gleaming rockets. Back then for a demo you were supposed to look like you just came off the parade square with a nice clean missile, now it's just off the battlefield (a fairly clean one) and the missile is supposed to look tough and ready to fight. Difference between Leave it to Beaver versus Reality TV I guess.

The Black and White patterned paint job on Rockets were there for a specific reason. They needed a painted pattern that was asymmetrical in the same way from any viewing angle. It was done so that in flight off the launch pad, observers could tell if the rocket was rolling or spinning during flight.

It also had the affect that in photographs and films you could recognize if the image had been accidently reversed or flipped in processing. Telemetry data was very crude, even in the 60's. If something went wrong, and they had to review the films, and photos, and they need to know exactly where the problem was on the rocket, and that was impossible to determine, if you couldn't be sure if the image had been accidently reversed or flipped in processing. All the processing of film was done by hand remember, and it's easy to flip a negative while working in the dark room.

The color of the paint pattern was simple because black and white paint was the cheapest.

The color of the paint pattern was simple because black and white paint was the cheapest.

Also, it's hard to get better contrast than you get between black and white.

Doug

For the space shuttle external fuel tank at least ..

The first two, used for STS-1 and STS-2, were painted white to protect the tanks from ultraviolet light during the extended time that the shuttle spends on the launch pad prior to launch. Because this did not turn out to be a problem, Lockheed Martin (at that time, Martin Marietta) reduced weight by ceasing to paint the external tanks beginning with STS-3, leaving the rust-colored spray-on insulation bare, saving approximately 272 kg (600 lb).

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