International orange International orange International orange is a color used in the aerospace industry to set objects apart from their surroundings, similar to safety orange, but deeper and with a more reddish tone. This is the shade used by NASA. The Bell X1, the first airplane to break the sound barrier, was also painted in International Orange. Above is displayed the tone of "international orange" used to paint the Golden Gate Bridge. The tone of international orange used to paint the Golden Gate Bridge is slightly lighter than the standard International orange used by military contractors and in engineering (shown below), thus
Golden Gate Bridge wanted it to be painted with black and yellow stripes to ensure visibility by passing ships. Senior engineer Charles Alton Ellis, collaborating remotely with Moisseiff, was the principal engineer of the project. Moisseiff produced the basic structural design, introducing his "deflection theory" by which a thin, flexible roadway would flex in the wind, greatly reducing stress by transmitting forces via suspension cables to the bridge towers. Although the Golden Gate Bridge design has proved sound, a later Moisseiff design, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, collapsed in a strong windstorm soon after it was completed, because of an unexpected aeroelastic flutter.