Comments on: Camouflaging An Airplane Factory

By: CatM

CatM — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 00:52:01 +0000

I remember these pictures. The “streets” were made of burlap and the workers used to climb up and randomly move the fake cars around. It was terrific!

The story about Universal is apocryphal.

By: rdfox

rdfox — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 02:42:43 +0000

Michael: Warner Bros. did something simpler; they just painted a giant “WB” shield logo that covered all the studio roofs. Apparently, the logo was still there at least into the early 90s, possibly more.

Also, modern camouflage technology takes IR signatures into effect; it’d be entirely possible to put fake IR sources into the camo to make it more convincing, while putting insulation over the factory’s IR sources.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:32:22 +0000

super cool!

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:01:01 +0000

It’s also worth nothing that Universal Studios, which feared its sound stages would be mistaken for the ivnisible Lockheed hangers put up a large sign, visible from the air, stating \Lockheed, that way\ with a directional arrow.

By: First Blast

First Blast — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:40:40 +0000

Satellite imagery in the near infrared bands would indicate no signature when fields and vegetation would normally return a very high signature in the near infrared bands.Actually this would be easily seen with todays technology.

By: BuriedCaesar

BuriedCaesar — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:58:12 +0000

That second to last picture looks like the curving road outside the main entrance to the Burbank Airport terminal. Only been there once, but it’s quite recognizable.

By: Old Geezer

Old Geezer — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:01:42 +0000

@Panama Red. You are absolutely right! I got turned around there. So, you seem to think west is in the direction of the ocean and east is where the sun comes up?

By: Nate

Nate — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:40:42 +0000

Boeing did the same thing… I would expect with satellite technology being what it is they couldn’t do this in the modern times.

http://www.taphilo.com/history/WWII/USAAF/Boeing/index.shtml

By: Panama Red

Panama Red — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:38:08 +0000

Well, Old Geezer, I too remember those daze(days?), but my recollection is that the old airport, was EAST of Supelveda (as wecalled it,then) Blvd. I remember my Dad walking out to the plane, AND, we went out to say goodbye, too!

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:26:00 +0000

Yah, totally agree J. Not saying this was unusual, that comment was more to the author who stated at the end that sometimes simpler is better. It was then, but now it’s a lot harder to get away with.

On a side note, it’s just as easy to tell which football fields are astro or field turf instead of natural grass using the Near Infrared bands of satellite or aerial imagery. Same concept, just different application :-)