Tanguy From Australia, joined Sep 1999, 154 posts, RR: 0
Reply 1, posted (14 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 1524 times:
The black nose area originally came about to stop glare from the sun being reflected into the cockpit. I don't think it is actually necessary on a B747 as the nose slopes steeply away, however Air Canada in the colour scheme depicted probably used the black paint to give the same 'look' as the rest of the fleet. This scheme appeared on AC's Viscount, Vanguard, DC-9 and B727 fleet and on most of those types some form of anti glare colouring would have been required. On the currently trendy "all white" fuselage paint schemes you will notice on close observation that the area below and forward of the cockpit windows is painted matt white, so it is less reflective of sunlight.
Boeing 777 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR:
Reply 2, posted (14 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 1514 times:
The black area under the windscreens that you're talking about, was to help cut down on the sunlight glare in bright and sunny conditions for the pilots. I do remember seeing that kind of thing on older AC a/c, usually 747s. I'm not sure which airline still use that today, but I do know that the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner did have the same thing just below its windscreen.