C-141B Starlifter in a striking camouflage scheme

[Stephan dBr]

Hi there,

After nearly 6,300 views at the website, some 3,000 views on Facebook (with 39 shares), the reason for this weird colourscheme, the location (and timeframe) of this picture and the exact serial of this C-141B Starlifter is still not clear. Anyone able to help AirHistory.net?

https://www.airhistory.net/photo/471814/65-940/6594

Please, consider to join AirHistory.net too, you will love it! Its a Dutch made aviation photo website with a superb search engine. You can add your photo archive very easy and make selections in every way you want! And... the site is 100% free without advertisements.

Regards,
Stephan

[Trabanti]

If taken in CONUS, could be McChord? Looks like the Rocky Mountains of Washington state in the back..

[SquAdmin]

Looking at the picture I'm wondering if this color scheme was applied intentionally or the result of a fire...

[Canberra TT.18]

It looks like behind this one is a complete black one. (Left hand side picture)
See tail and nose.

[ehusmann]

No knowledge, but to me it seems like a pre- or post-maintenance shot with the normal paint removed. If you check the pattern it roughly coincides with the normal camouflage pattern. With the dark patches being the grey and the yellow being the green clours (both light and dark green). Notice also that all other markings are removed (no serial, no badges, no roundel).
And for the darkness of the dark colour, that probably has more to do with the light conditions. Look at the lizard one in the background, it is just as dark on the picture (way too dark for the real colours, looks like my own Lifter pictures from back in the nineties at Soesterberg, always that dark due to backlight and just poor camera handling...).

Again, no knowledge, just my hunch.

[Canberra TT.18]

I have a agree with you on both
The green/grey camouflage has same pattern.
The one in the back is very dark or backlightish.

So it is made when C-141B went from white to green/grey. There is still a white one. But this one is already in camouflage.
It picture is made on a base where maintance/painting is done (could be all Starlifter base) with mountains as a backdrop..

[68-0037UH]

My guess is Norton AFB

[NJO]

If taken in CONUS, could be McChord? Looks like the Rocky Mountains of Washington state in the back..

The Rockies are nowhere near McChord though. The mountains at McChord are the Cascade Mountains (includes Mt Rainier).

Agree with Norton as the location.

[Alpha Kilo One]

If there is any, could be useful to explain your connection to this particular site.....

[SquAdmin]

Btw, while searching for some background information about this color scheme, I found this other unique C-141 camo:

https://c141heaven.info/dotcom/pic_67_0021.php

[Rabbit]

the exact serial of this C-141B Starlifter is still not clear. Anyone able to help AirHistory.net?

My guess is 65-9404

See serial on the nose.

[Key]

Duplicate topics merged.

[Stephan dBr]

Hi all, thanks for these comments, unfortunately no exact solution is given, but just great educated guesses, ten points! The location is most probably Norton AFB (CA) with the San Bernardino mountains on back-ground. I agree that the colour scheme could have some connection to pre- or post maintenance, but at the same time, the colours look quite weared so a temporary (watercolour, whitewash paint) can not be excluded. In the eightees, the US forces (US Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps) were well known of temporary (test) camouflage schemes, also during (local) exercises. Time will tell if this was the case with this Starlifter.

The photo is of course a slide scan and I think I managed to come as close to the true colours. The little backlight as well as the quality of the original slide made it all quite difficult. Looking at the white/grey Lifter on the back-ground, the presented colours are imho quite realistic. The C-141B in the far back-ground is just dark green, a standard lizard one

@Alpha Kilo One, my connection to the AirHistory.net site... a good friend of me is the developer and owner of this 100% Dutch site. I became involved in the early stages of the developement of the site, as well as a tester of the beta version before it was launched to the public. After launch to the public, I became together with a "civil" guy, the military aviation social media editor of the AirHistory.net team. Besides that, I'm just an enthusiastic user and uploader of this great website. It is set up as an aviation photo database website and research site. It is giving you great option to show your photos to the world, 100% free! The future proof site is also superb, due to its ultra fast search engine, to create your own portfolio which can be selected and created (by links) on many ways. For example, on serial sequence, on owner, on type, on location, on photographer, or on any combination you like! Publishing your aviation clicks on volatile Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (within hours your photo is forgotten), AirHistory.net provides you a way to upload and archive your photos with your own comments. Your archive will be kept as a legacy, in stead of keeping them on your computer.

Just recently, another good friend provided me the digital version of the very impressive Johan van der Wei slide archive. I named this the "Johan van der Wei Legacy collection" within AirHistory.net. I now slowly have started to upload Johans unqiue archive that comntaines thousands of pictures (all with permission of his relatives and that friend).

Hope to welcome many Scramble users / photographers as well as all other aviation photographers on AirHistory.net. We already have archived near half a million aviation photos (old, new, civil, military) of some 203,000 different registrations/serials, uploaded by over 400 photographers. And these numbers are growing day-by-day! The screening of photo's is very easy (not like Airliners.net), so don't be afraid your images are not good enough.

Best regards,
Stephan