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by Daniel_Newby 4518 days ago
Planes do not have to be painted. Bare aluminum is pretty corrosion resistant. Many airlines strip most of the paint to save weight.
2 comments

While bare aluminum saves weight, the TCO is higher:

"While the lighter weight of a polished airplane saves fuel costs [...] this savings is more than offset by the higher cost of washing, polishing, and painting a polished fuselage throughout its service life. The net operating cost of polished airplanes, calculated as a percentage of the total operating cost, is between 0.06 percent and 0.30 percent more than the total operating cost of fully painted airplanes."

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_05/texton...

Pure Al does form a passive layer, but apparently not 2024 Al alloy as used on aircraft (trades more strength for corrosion susceptibility).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_aluminium_alloy

Some corrosion pics still at http://connielinguscorrosion.blogspot.com/ .