Can you use decals on jet airplanes or paint only?

Question

Can you use stickers / decals on a jet plane?

Answer 1

PAINT ONLY

Airbus starts painting A380 for Singapore Airlines

Following timely completion of the cabin installation of the first A380 for Singapore Airlines, Airbus has started the paintwork on this aircraft. The A380 will stay about three weeks in the company's paint-shop in Hamburg/Germany. In addition to the actual painting, most of the other work in the paint-shop is cleaning, grinding, masking and unmasking the 3,100 square metres of surface of the A380.

About 3,600 liters of chromate-free paint is used for three layers of paint (primer, customer-paint, top-coat) for an A380. Only 600 to 1,000 kg of paint stays on the aircraft. Each layer is only measuring about 0.120 mm and is able to withstand differences in temperatures of about 100 degrees Celsius.

Airbus is applying the most modern and environmental friendly techniques for the A380 painting process. Electrostatic pistols are used to minimize paint mist. Used air is cleaned and washed through a multi-stage cleaning process to ensure that paint particles are disposed separately.  

Answer 2

Stickers are infeasible for 2 reasons - 1 is that they would probably come off at 400 MPH (the speed that the jet moves through the air, not over the ground), and the second is that they would create a small amount of drag and would make the plane slightly less fuel-efficient.  

Answer 3

Customer logos are often appliques (super strong decals that will stay on at 600 miles per hour).

For fuselage application, the issue is getting a smooth fit over fasteners and joints and what to do about small air leaks at fasteners.

Answer 4

If possible the airline will paint the markings on since if done properly it lasts the longest. But sometimes they use decals which is sealed with an edge sealer to stop them from peeling off at high speed. The sealer is like clear nail polish but does not damage the paint or any metal.

Answer 5

8-Year Air Force F-111 specialist here.

We used decals on the birds.  Things like command insignia were decals, than then has a clear coat applied over them.

They stayed on at the 1650+ mph the F-111 was good for.

Many airliners use "applied graphics" for their specially painted planes, with a clear coat over them.