Airplane of the Day - Dutch F-16

Dutch F-16 - ReneSpe
Rampant Lion (?) Design

The military usually paints their aircraft a flat gray, but sometimes somebody gets a wild hair and decides they want to wear pink socks*, and at that point, after you've gone through all the trouble to get funding for aircraft and its operation, and then finding, recruiting and training a pilot, well, why the hell not?

And given that combat can be conducted over such distances that you can't even see your opponent, does it even matter if your airplane is painted with a brightly colored, flamboyant design?

All in all, a pretty cool paint job.

*The 'pink socks' remark is from The Birdcage (La Cage Aux Folles). A flamboyantly gay man has to dress up as, and pretend to be, straight. He does pretty well, except for the socks. The scene when he reveals them is the funniest I've ever seen.

Via FlightAware

Update Sunday evening: I looked up Nathan (the gay character) and found that among his many other roles he also played a lawyer named Clarke on The Good Wife, which rated a mention on this blog.