Hurtful Thoughts wrote:1. Letting the air/groundcrews personalize the planes allows them to become emotionally invested in the condition of their birds, and makes keeping track of them that much easier.
2. Tallying the number of sorties an airframe has done ON THE AIRFRAME ITSELF cuts-down in the requisite paperwork between overhauls, especially when by looking at the markings alone, you can guess their flight-time to within 15 minutes.
3. It makes the pilots feel scrarier and more aggressive
4. It frightens anyone who gets close enough to see the nose-art.
Add:
In an interesting twist, techies tend to put artwork and other markings on the catapult-machinery of aircraft-carriers to keep track of how much abuse those things have taken.
-ALL forms of mechnical abuse, including below-decks noodle-incidents.
On some planes, the nose-art reflected the specific mannerisms and behaviors of that particular plane (flying box-car, or F-4 Phantom 'Gunslinger' icon to quickly tell people the thing was meant to lug a gunpod at all times, or that the pilot really liked rocket pods).
-In others, they were stylized warning-borders (red around the air-intake)
Also, it's pretty common to see some similar stuff down in the engine-room. "My" main engine was named 'Thruster,' it's sister was 'Turbo' and for the longest times the mechanics were trying to get a chit signed to paint one of our largest above-bilge tanks like a fish-tank.
I can neither confirm not deny the use of profanity to mark the insides of equipment that is irregularly opened up to mark that someone has been there.
Or Army Men being so ever important to keep the Gremlins away and placed inside of equipment. Or Domo-Kuns. Personal achievements and the like, like "Wait, how did they get to that?" Sometimes double-personal achievements, like writing the names of all the girls you've scored with in some dangerous/precarious/seemingly unreachable hidden place.
You find less "useful" markings in the engine-room, at least on a nuclear powered vessel. The "oh, well, it's painted on there," is not considered a valid form of documentation and is often considered unprofessional. We
Graznovian Federation
