Boeing B314 Question

At Hobby Lobby, in their "framed art" section, I saw on several occasions a large, framed photo of passengers boarding a B-314. It was a fairly sharp, close-up photo (the emphasis, after all, being on the passengers), and the finish of what could be seen (a section of the fuselge, and a small area of the wing) appeared to be a very dull metallic shade. Definitely *not* polished natural metal; but either a silver dope, or the dulled natural metal a plane would have, with such exposure to such an environment.

Given the saltwater environment they were operated in, I would expect silver dope or some similar anti-corrosion coating to have been used. Natural aluminium would corrode too quickly to be useful.

I've been around natural finish aluminum planes a lot. When freshly polished, the finish is shiny. However, aluminum, at least the alloys they build aircraft skin from, oxidizes and weathers quickly. I can remember one squadron where the commmander had a polished T33. They polished that baby EVERY week. And it was kept in a hanger a lot.

I would assume those clippers were outside most of the time and hence would be pretty weathered. Pan Am kept their planes pretty clean, but polishing one of those babies (as opposed to washing them) would be a real task. And the natural finish planes I was used to were in Texas and Missouri. I'd assume that spraying them with seawater each flight would not ease the weathering problem any :-) Also, there were likely different alloys used on certain parts, which would weather to different "patinas".

Weathered aluminum is even less reflective than aluminum dope or silver paint. If I want weathered aluminum I often mix some flat aluminum with some flat medium grey.

Good point! A silver or aluminum paint would definitely hold a gloss better than natural aluminum.