The real reason for the weird Russian cockpit colors.

[Picure]

For realz? 
 

 

[Dragon1-1]

Yes. The color palette had been essentially been chosen to make the pilots feel better in the cockpit. Some Western aircraft did that, too, although not in fighters. 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Dragon1-1

[Kang]

Well, that is actually one half of the truth. The other half is that the Soviets had this fire-retardant they wanted to put in the cockpits for obvious reasons and it just kinda ended up being that kinda colour. You will find that the actual shades of the turquoise colour differs quite a lot between airframes from the rich paint seen in this video to the much paler shade we got in the DCS MiG-21 to virtually grey with just a hint of green. That often has to do with supply of the material and which factory made it; if it was entirely about wanting a specific colour there would probably have been stricter guidelines about it, seeing how 'regular colour' wasn't scarce and - being how its only purpose would have been to be a specific colour - there would have been more complaints about not matching it.

[Dangerzone]

9 hours ago, Dragon1-1 said:

Yes. The color palette had been essentially been chosen to make the pilots feel better in the cockpit. Some Western aircraft did that, too, although not in fighters. 

 

I need to repaint my house walls. Better still - my work office!!! 

[Dragon1-1]

5 hours ago, Kang said:

if it was entirely about wanting a specific colour there would probably have been stricter guidelines about it, seeing how 'regular colour' wasn't scarce and - being how its only purpose would have been to be a specific colour - there would have been more complaints about not matching it.

It wasn't about a specific color, it was about the color palette. Any tone between blue and green would probably do, human brain isn't picky in that regard. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was an evolutionary imprint to the tune of blue sky=good weather=no need to worry. The fire retardant could likely have been made in another color, but this one had the added bonus of being easy on the pilots. Remember, being too much of a stickler about the shade would have made production more complex and expensive, and the Soviets were working on assumption that in a war, they'd have to out-manufacture NATO, so they preferred loose tolerances.