Sky Camouflage

[David_Layton]

There has been quite a lot of discussion on the pale blue camouflage.

Are there any extant samples of the original fabric from early aircraft such as the Rumpler C.I or other contemporaries?

[Dan_San_Abbott]

David Layton:
There were two forms of the sky camouflage. The first form was clear doped linen and all other parts of the aircraft were painted to match the color of the clear dope linen. You can discern this yourself, if the fabric surfaces are translucent, it is clear doped linen. This was most likely aircraft that was covered with bleached linen fabric. The aircraft would appear off white.
The second form, the entire aircraft was painted pale sky blue. The finish is opaque and structure is not obvious. I think that aircraft that were covered with unbleached linen fabric were painted pale sky blue. Rumpler used a very pale bluish white.
Blue skies
Dan-San