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My affinity for Douglas as usual, got a break from training today and checked out the Delta History Museum.  Nikon Z7 and Minolta MD 28mm F2.8

Cool! Hope training is going well. Nice looking plane. What's the history behind glaringly shiny chrome airplanes and why they don't make them anymore? It just looks like you would bake in there... Sure love that era of planes though.

Weight and cost savings, paint adds up on that much real esate to cover, the Aluminum has a pure clad layer that's corrosion resistant.  American Airlines opted for the plain look for years, because it saved so much money, just painting a couple center lines. A 737's paint job weight is approximately 555lbs according to Boeing, now imagine it's bigger relative the 747.  It's just an option at this point for the look, plain Aluminum shows dirt and stains easily.  Plus alot of airplanes are much more composite in design, certain flight controls and panels, which may be carbon fiber or fiberglass can be degraded by the sun's UV rays.  Even white/grey airplanes are scorching hot in the summer, if the cooling packs aren't running, they're lined with insulation everywhere and if the cabin gets hot or cold it stays in that condition easily without conditioned air.

Speaking of that, United once dispatched their jet black Rise of Skywalker Star Wars 737 in Liberia, Costa Rica when I was down there for a charter for Beck's Seed.  Oddly enough if you apparently bought enough corn seed you got a free vacation, these were big corporate farmers from Indiana that easily spent 200k on their product.  Our blue livery plane I was on that flew I down on was just toasting in the near equator sun even with the AC system cranked full cold until we got up 10,000 feet.