Lease-Lend aircraft supplied to the Soviet Union during World War II

It is worth mentioning at this point that large numbers of aircraft were supplied to the Soviet Union during the war, under the provisions of Lend-Lease, by the USA and the United Kingdom. Very little was ever released by the Soviet Union on the extent of this help, and in view of the previous entry describing the requirements for camouflage on some of these aircraft produced by Douglas, we are providing a list of the aircraft sent to Russia:

EglLn Field publish report on Glossy Paint for Night Camouflage, December 10,1943.

On December 10,1943, Egiin Field published report No. 3-43-114, “Test of glossy Paint for Night Camouflage”. This stated that compa­rable tests were conducted at Egiin Field with aircraft finished with a special black paint of high specular and low diffuse reflectance and aircraft finished with the standard matt black paint. The matt black aircraft appeared “silvery” white in the searchlights, while the glossy black (622 Jet Black) aircraft was invisible 75% of the time and the effectiveness of both optically and radar controlled searchlights was greatly reduced, except from the specular angle.

The visibility of the glossy black in moonlight was increased over the standard matt black. Waxing or “simonizing” assisted in maintain­ing the effectiveness of this camouflage since a high gloss played such an important part. Egiin Field recommended that the special black paint be standardized and replace the standard matt black