Why are radomes in mecha anime so similar?

[00qv]

So this has been nagging on me quite a bit ever since i noticed, but alot of radomes in mecha anime seem to share the common design of being a plate with a dark bar in the centre.




But looking into real life radomes they seem "fatter" and actually have the outer part black instead.


I'm pretty curious if there is an actual real life model these are all referencing that I'm missing, or is this a design that has taken a life of its own sort of like a "mecha anime shorthand for scanning gizmo" and if so, what would its origins be?

[Seto Kaiba]

Wrong section of the boards, but a fun question nevertheless.

So this has been nagging on me quite a bit ever since i noticed, but alot of radomes in mecha anime seem to share the common design of being a plate with a dark bar in the centre.
[...]
I'm pretty curious if there is an actual real life model these are all referencing that I'm missing, or is this a design that has taken a life of its own sort of like a "mecha anime shorthand for scanning gizmo" and if so, what would its origins be?

Simply put, because their designs are inspired by those of rotary radomes found on various real world aircraft like the E-2 Hawkeye, E-3 Sentry, and a host of others.

The paint is purely cosmetic, but it does serve a practical purpose on those aircraft. Rotary radomes... well... rotate while in operation. By painting a design on them, it becomes easy for ground crew or other aircraft to tell if the radar system is operating. A horizontal line across the radar is simply the easiest design to paint and thus the most commonly found, particularly on civilian aircraft, since it simply follows the line of the structural parts holding the radome up. Other popular patterns include triangles and spirals (see the VAW-123 "Screwtops"). Some Navy AWACS squadrons occasionally paint squadron insignia or other commemorative designs onto their radomes, sometimes echoed in fiction like Macross's VE-11 Thunderseeker.

In some cases, like Macross Frontier's RVF-25 or Gundam SEED's AWACS DINN there, it's played completely straight because the craft is equipped with a rotary radome.

In others, like the Ex-S Gundam or Metal Gear Rex, it's more like design shorthand for a radar, though those aren't rotary radomes but directional radar dishes.

[MythSearcher]

The paint is purely cosmetic, but it does serve a practical purpose on those aircraft. Rotary radomes... well... rotate while in operation. By painting a design on them, it becomes easy for ground crew or other aircraft to tell if the radar system is operating. A horizontal line across the radar is simply the easiest design to paint and thus the most commonly found, particularly on civilian aircraft, since it simply follows the line of the structural parts holding the radome up. Other popular patterns include triangles and spirals (see the VAW-123 "Screwtops"). Some Navy AWACS squadrons occasionally paint squadron insignia or other commemorative designs onto their radomes, sometimes echoed in fiction like Macross's VE-11 Thunderseeker.

Same reason for rockets to have black and white portions, it is easy to see any rotation on it(which is usually undesired) and if you know the number of portions you can estimate the rotational speed easily.

In others, like the Ex-S Gundam or Metal Gear Rex, it's more like design shorthand for a radar, though those aren't rotary radomes but directional radar dishes.

Radar+dome=Radome (portmanteau)
Rotary Radomes actually also have a portmanteau, Rotodome.

Dome is basically just the structure protecting the radar, it doesn't have to be moving.

[Seto Kaiba]

Same reason for rockets to have black and white portions, it is easy to see any rotation on it(which is usually undesired) and if you know the number of portions you can estimate the rotational speed easily.

They don't typically have any incremental markings like that... the paint is, in most cases, purely decorative.

The main exception being the E-3 Sentry's radome, wherein the white "stripe" is the actual physical radar housing (made of aluminum and painted in the same weather resistant paint as the rest of the fuselage) and the radome's fiberglass sections are painted black because that's the easiest color to find a radar-transparent nonmetallic weatherproof paint in.

Radar+dome=Radome (portmanteau)
Rotary Radomes actually also have a portmanteau, Rotodome.

They do... but the term is rarely used, so the point is more academic than anything. In fiction, you will typically find rotary radomes referred to simply as "radome".

Dome is basically just the structure protecting the radar, it doesn't have to be moving.

That's not strictly true... on a couple levels.

Depending on the type of radar, the dome's rotation can be necessary because the radome is a structural part of the radar itself (e.g. the PESA radars of the E-3). In other cases, the radome also exists as a way to keep personnel safe around the radar (preventing the spinning radar from hitting people).

'course, that's not applicable to the steerable multifunction AESA radar of the Metal Gear Rex (primarily meant to be for missile intercept use) or the supplemental composite sensor on the Zeta Plus/EX-S's FXA-03M2 hyper mega launcher (which is a disc-shaped composite sensor).

[elena199x]

Radomes in mecha anime often share a flat, plate-like design with a dark central bar as a stylized shorthand for advanced scanning technology,Crazy Cattle 3D diverging from the bulkier, rounded real-world radomes. This aesthetic likely originated from early influential works like Mobile Suit Gundam and became a trope through the genre's visual evolution.