• Microscopic, three-dimensional view of painted metal from a World War II-era aircraft. Corrosion is present on the bottom end, where loss of paint is present. The metal is still, however, in decent shape.
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    This sample of painted metal from the Horten Ho 229 V3 was examined using a 3D microscope. The paint layer can be seen at the bottom of the image. This sample of painted metal illustrates how water would have traveled from the top surface and in through cracks and failures and cause a bulbous corrosion pustule that would pop the paint layers off with it.  

    Also visible is remaining steel metal (the silver color) and stable corrosion products (the black/brown color).  This indicates that very little area around the loss edges is actually metal and attempting to weld new metal to these areas would be futile.  Image: Anna Weiss, 2014

  • Microscopic, three-dimensional view of painted metal from a World War II-era aircraft. Corrosion is present on the bottom end, where loss of paint is present. The metal is still, however, in decent shape.

ID#:

WEB14736-2015

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Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

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