MovieChat Forums > The Blue Max (1966) Discussion > Lozenge pattern on triplanes- not really...

Lozenge pattern on triplanes- not really a 'goof.'

posted 16 years ago by SAlexLindsay
1 reply | jump to latest

Remember this is a fictional story.
After Stachel saves and impresses the Red Baron,his squadron are given a pair of triplanes. At least that's the way I interpretted it, it might be different in the book.
Stachel's squadron is not a famous fighter wing like Von Richtofen's Flying Circus, but only a standard one, as is reflected by the lozenge pattern on all their aircraft. (This material was mass produced by German/Dutch textile companies at the time and the pattern became standard issue.)
Is it not, therefore, quite plausible that Stachel and Willy's triplanes would be fashioned the same as all the others in their squadron?
Well that's the way I see it.

[–] Raid24 16 years ago

I agree.

"In April of 1917 lozenge appeared in the skies over Germany and Austria-Hungary in an effort to better camoflage aircraft against their background and reduce the extra weight of colored dopes. If you are familiar with pointillist painting, a school of Impressionism fashionable at the turn of the century, you know that when small points of colors are viewed from afar they tend to merge together. The beauty of this optical illusion is that the dominant color of the background visually enhances a similar color in the lozenge, and fools the mind into seeing the two as the same. Ironically, the gaudy markings and prominent national insignia almost always nullified any effective camouflage offered by the lozenge pattern."