Why Are so Many Aaircraft Painted White?

By Rob Russell

It's not an unusual sight nowadays to see so many white aircraft parked around airports. It's not due to a lack of imagination from the airlines! Gone are the days of fancy paint schemes. Well, at least for a few years! Whilst an aircraft painted all over showing a certain brand or advertising a certain product is unusual and stands out, most aircraft are white for some very practical (and as important, economical) reasons. (And to keep the bean counters happy).

​Why has "Eurowhite" become the industry standard? It’s down to one or more of four reasons.

1. Heat and thermal Management

​This is probably the most important factor. White reflects sunlight, whereas a darker colour absorbs it. This goes a long way to keeping fuselages cool.

Keeping the fuselage cool is critical for:

• ​Preventing Overheating: It helps keep the cabin at a comfortable temperature while the plane sits on the apron. Some aircraft spend several hours on the ground and any overheating would make sensitive equipment subject to massive temperature variations, if painted in dark colours, which could lead to equipment problems in flight. So the air conditioners do not have to work too hard if the aircraft is white.

• ​Protecting Sensitive Parts: It shields internal components and composite materials from solar radiation damage.

• Interestingly, there are people in the USAAF who have mentioned that the dark schemes now being painted on the bottom of their VIP aircraft could affect some of the sensitive equipment on the aircraft!

2. Structural Health & Maintenance

​White makes it much easier to spot issues on the plane's fuselage.

​Visual Inspections: Cracks, dents, corrosion and oil leaks are almost always darker than the paint, making them immediately visible to ground crews and pilots during their walk-around.

​3. Weight and Cost

​Believe it or not, paint is heavy and darker pigments are heavier than lighter ones. While the colour white doesn't weigh less than blue or red per gallon, it has a major weight advantage in practice:

• ​Fewer Coats: White has excellent "opacity." It covers the primer and metal underneath in just one or two thin coats.

• ​Pigment Density: Darker colours often require more pigment or multiple layers to look uniform. Believe it or not, some airlines have found that switching from a dark "decorative" livery back to a simple white base saved them nearly 100kgs on a single 737-sized aircraft.

• Payload: A full paint job adds significant weight, sometimes up to 250–500kg for a large jet. More colours and layers mean more weight, which all adds up to more fuel being used per sector flown.

• Resale Value: It’s much easier for an airline to sell or lease a white plane to another company; the new owner just has to swap the logo rather than repainting the entire aircraft.

4. Resistance to Fading

​At 35,000 feet, aircraft skins are badly affected by intense UV radiation.

Darker paints tend to fade and oxidise over time, looking streaky and dirty and requiring frequent touch-ups. White stays looking crisp for much longer, saving airlines a fortune in aesthetic maintenance.

It is easy to forget that while paint looks like a thin skin, it is a physical layer of chemicals spread over thousands of square feet. For a commercial airliner, the paint can weigh as much as a small car or a dozen passengers.

​The exact weight depends heavily on the size of the aircraft and the number of coats applied.

For example:

Aircraft type Estimated paint weight equivalent to

A light plane 5 – 15kgs A large suitcase

Regional Jet 75-125kgs One Adult

Boeing 737/AirbusA320 150-200kgs 3-4 Passengers

Boeing 777 500-700kgs A small sedan-type car

Airbus A380 750-1200kgs A medium SUV

So by painting your aircraft in fancy colours, it all adds up. Take the extra weight over each sector flown, over a day, over a year and it all adds up to affecting your Company’s bottom line. So it makes sense to keep the paint as uncomplicated as possible, as well as light as possible. However its not all doom and gloom and colourful aircraft are still going to be around for many years!

Researchers have developed a new energy-saving paint that repels heat, comes in any colour and should last centuries. It's also the lightest paint created to date. Inspired by butterfly wings, believe it or not, this paint isn't made from pigment. Instead, colour is created structurally through the arrangement of nanoparticles. It is known as 'plasmonic paint'. Based on their calculations, it would only take 1.4 kilograms of plasmonic paint to cover a Boeing 747 – you'd need at least 454 kilograms of conventional commercial paint to do the same. The other advantage is that the paint is very tough and lasts considerably longer than traditional paint, so aesthetic touch ups wont be required.

But this paint won't be here tomorrow! This paint has only been created in the lab, and is still very much in the experimental stage, so we're a long way away from producing it en masse and fancy paint schemes returning to your favourite aircraft!

So in the meantime, white is the way to go!