> I have just removed the radiators from my classic
> Europa. I spent many hours combing them to bring back
> the original beauty.
>
> Now - always striving to do something different - I was
> thinking of repainting them white instead of blak. It
> would compliment the paint scheme of the plane.
>
> I was wondering whether white paint would massively
> affect the ability of the radiators to dissipate heat.
> My gut feeling tells me that the bypassing air molecule
> does not mind the color of the hot metal bit it gets
> heated up by. But then again ... there was something in
> science class many years ago about dark body radiation.
>
>
> If it has an effect of less than 5 % I will go ahead
> and spray them white, however if I lose 50 % of
> radiation-ability ... paint it black.
>
> Yes, I did find hi-temp paint claiming to transmit heat
> well (instead of insulating).
>
> Please advise.
>
I may be wrong but I think radiators on the plane work by
conduction not radiation ! And you are wrong that the air
goes past a "hot metal bit" if it has been painted. The
air goes past a PAINTED bit ! And so the paint may (or may
not) act as an insulator to the heat passing through from
the metal underneath to the air rushing past.
If you are black painted now then white painted is unlike
to make much difference (unless you paint white on top of
black therefore doublingthe "insulation" thickness !
White _reflects_ heat better than white which tends to
_absorb_ heat (and that is why the Europa is supposed to
be predominantly white painted).
So to sum up, if you remove all your black "transmit heat
well" paint and then replace with white "transmit heat
well" paint then not much will change.
On the other hand who will see the difference anyway :-) ?
IE - why bother !
Richard who likes to fly not fiddle with engineering stuff.
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