Real answer: when seen from the top-down when on the ground or by planes which are higher up (less important with the advent of plane-mounted radar and heat-seeking missiles and such)

Noncredible answer: style points

[–] Majorllama 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah but the enemy will be expecting planes that are painted to look like ground. They should paint them blue to confuse the enemy. Make them think they have lots of plane shaped ponds.

[–] PugJesus 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Funny enough, in WW2, they sometimes did paint the undersides of planes blue as camo - from the ground, AA could have trouble distinguishing them against the sky.

[–] Majorllama 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Jokes aside I know why they paint things the way they do lol.

The lighter underside and darker topside is consistent in nature as well as our military vehicles for a very obvious reason. Birds almost always have lighter feathers on their belly and darker on top.

Even in the water you will see similar color choices from many creatures. Them fuckers are always trying to avoid being seen.

[–] PugJesus 2 points 2 days ago

My obsession with trivia can't resist the serious answer, even when I think someone is just going along with the joke 😔