A couple people have noticed that the Saturn V behind me over here actually has a different paint scheme than all of the Saturn V's that actually flew missions to the moon. We're going to talk about why right here on Vintage Space. The Black & White paint scheme on rockets has roots at least in part in Nazi Germany. Warner von Braun's team painted the A4 or V2 rockets with large black and white checkered patterns so it was easier to see whether it was rolling in flight. The paint pattern became standard and migrated to the United States with the rocket tears when they were imported under Operation Overcast and Project Paperclip. The rockets that spun off from the V2 at the hands of the German engineers bore the same black and white paint scheme though it did vary depending on the rocket. Among the earliest rockets built in the United States by Warner von Braun and his team were the Redstone and Jupiter rockets, both of which have a checkered pattern or a linear pattern of black and white sections to show the rockets movement in flight. Among the rockets that carried men into space it was the Saturn family that had German roots and these rockets also had a black and white paint scheme. The Saturn 1 rockets featured alternating a black and white stripes on the first stage, a small checkered pattern on the inner stage and an all white second stage. The black paint did actually cause some problems. Some rockets registered heat spikes in the fuel tanks under the black paint as it absorbed the heat of the sun but they were never removed from the design. The Saturn 1B was the next big rocket. It was a Saturn 1 with a larger S4B upper stage. This rocket was painted white save for the vertical black stripes on the first stage, though some Saturn 1Bs launched with an instrument ring painted black. The Saturn 5 was the largest Saturn rocket ever built and it was the one that took astronauts to the moon. It had an all white body with black stripes that went about a third of the way up in the first stage and continued on the upper part of the stage, ending in a black ring at the inner stage. An uneven black and white checkered pattern was painted on the upper inner stage and the instrument unit was painted black. At the top the service module was a tiny fleck of silver because the command module was covered in a white shroud. All the Saturn 5s had the same paint scheme except one and that was the first Saturn 5 to ever roll out of the vehicle assembly building in 1966. This was a dummy rocket that was never intended to fly and it was designated Apollo Saturn 500F. This was the one used to verify Apollo launch facilities, train launch crews and develop test and check out procedures. It was also the rocket that meant physically shook to see how the structure would hold up in the event of strong wings on the launch pad. The paint scheme changed from the Saturn 500F to the flight Saturn 5s was due to heat. The ring of black paint absorbed heat while the Saturn rocket sat on the launch pad and the fuel tank inside got dangerously hot. The upper part of the black stripes and the band around the middle were painted over in white on the later Saturn 5s. The white paint reflected heat from the sun and the heating problem was solved. Do you guys have a preference of Saturn 5 paint scheme? Because I just think the rocket looks amazing all the time. Let me know in the comments below and be sure to follow me on Twitter for daily vintage space content as AST Vintage Space. And with new episodes every Tuesday and Friday, be sure to subscribe right here so you never miss an episode.