The F-16 in the picture is painted in the classic manner of U.S. Army Air Corps pursuit (fighter) aircraft of the 1920s–blue fuselage, yellow wings and empennage, red, white, and blue stripes on the control surfaces (except, in this case, no stripes on the horizontal stabilizers, because the bird has an all-moving slab tailplane, rather than elevators). Note especially the old-fashioned national insignia, with the red center in the star, and no bars. We had planes in this color scheme almost to the eve of World War II. Though olive drab above and gray below became the standard paint scheme in deference to tactical realities, the star in the circle with the red dot remained the national insignia–along with striped rudder surfaces–until the second half of 1942. It seems that the red dot could be mistaken for a Japanese meatball in the heat of a dogfight, so that was painted white. Then, because our Navy and the ground pounders tended to shoot at everything that flew, they made the insignia HUGE. When that didn’t work, they added a white bar, first with a yellow outline, then with a red one, and finally with a blue one. The red line in the bar was added in 1947, when the Air Force was established. Colors went away in the 1980s, when aircraft and insignia were all gray. But there were always specially painted birds for special occasions, like anniversaries, Tiger Meets, unit disbandments, and aircraft final flights. I happen to think this bird is pretty handsome, myself.
