PILOT PAINTING

• Manufacturer: Meng Models
• Scale: 1/48
• Step By Step Level: Rapid Video
• Presented By: Bobby waldron
• Number of Episodes: 1
• Camera Angels: 1
• Camera Definition: 4K
• PE Parts Used: No
• Painting Mask Used: No
• Resin Parts Used: No
• Kit Used No:  MMLS-012

Like motorcyclists, U.S. Navy pilots “dress for the slide, not the ride.” Their gear is meant for frost, flames, and flotation. Even the very first pilot to operate from a ship carried safety equipment: Eugene Ely, attempting his landing on the deck of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania in 1911, took the controls of his Curtiss Pusher wearing a leather football helmet, bug-eyed motoring goggles, and a makeshift life vest fashioned from bicycle inner tubes.

The odds of a mission ending with an ejection from the cockpit are slim—it happens precisely 1.33 times per 100,000 hours of flying, according to the Navy. But naval flight officers still carry equipment for just such a scenario. “Most of the gear is only for emergency use,” says Lt. Luke “Oslo” DeLisio, a flight officer from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106. “But when you need it, you’re glad it’s there.”

“Like Wearing Your Pajamas to Work”
Starting from the inside out, pilots and aircrew wear cotton undergarments. In the event of a cockpit fire, cotton won’t melt and fuse to a crew member’s skin the way nylon or polyester would.

Over their skivvies, pilots wear a one-piece CWU 27/P Nomex flight suit. Developed by DuPont in the 1960s, Nomex is a fire-resistant synthetic that can withstand heat and flash (a type of electrical discharge) up to 752℉. When the Nomex suit encounters intense heat, its fibers thicken and carbonize, absorbing heat energy. The fleet standard color for the CWU 27/P is sage green, but fliers serving in the Persian Gulf region and in stateside aggressor units wear desert tan.