{{Short description|Type of aircraft finish}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use British English|date=February 2018}} {{infobox color |title=NIVO |caption=Approximation of NIVO |spelling=colour |hex=404735 |source=Federal Standard 595<ref name="fs34096">{{cite web |title=Federal Standard 595 Color FS 34096 |url=http://www.colorserver.net/showcolor.asp?fs=34096 |access-date=18 January 2022 |website=colorserver.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180507145300/http://www.colorserver.net/showcolor.asp?fs=34096 |archive-date=2018-05-07}}</ref> }}
'''NIVO''', abbreviated from '''Night Invisible Varnish Orfordness''' (or "Night Varnish Orfordness"),<ref>{{cite book| last=Kinsey| first=Gordon| title=Boulton & Paul Aircraft| date=1992-03-01| page=172| publisher=Terence Dalton Limited| isbn=978-0861380855}}</ref> was a dark grey-green overall finish applied to British night bomber aircraft in the inter-war period (1918–1939).
[[File:Hendon 190913 Vickers Vimy 01.jpg|thumb|NIVO-finished Vickers Vimy serial ''F8614'' at the RAF Museum London]]
Developed in 1918 by the experimental station at Orford Ness, as a low-visibility colouring for the Royal Air Force it had a sheen to match that of open water on a moonlit night.<ref name=Richardson2001>{{cite book| last=Richardson| first=Doug| title=Stealth Warplanes: Deception, Evasion, and Concealment in the Air| publisher=Zenith Press| date=2001-10-11|pages=15–16|isbn=0-7603-1051-3}}</ref>
It was applied to aircraft from 1918 and was used on the Vickers Virginia, Handley Page Hyderabad, Handley Page Hinaidi, Handley Page Heyfords and Fairey Hendon bombers.
By the mid-1930s, tests had determined that the varnish was too reflective when searchlights were shone on it.<ref name=Richardson2001 /> NIVO was phased out in the late 1930s, and had been discontinued by the time of the arrival of the new British medium bombers – the Vickers Wellington, Handley Page Hampden and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley.
NIVO is covered by Federal Standard 595 colour FS:34096<ref name="ipms">{{cite web|author= Urban Fredriksson & Martin Waligorski |title=Urban's Colour Reference Charts |date=September 2006 |url=http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_fs.htm |website=IPMSStockholm.org |publisher=IPMS Stockholm |access-date=18 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.vicflintham.co.uk/lists/britcols.html| title=British Military Colours 1940 to date| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023055931/http://www.vicflintham.co.uk/lists/britcols.html| archive-date=2013-10-23 |website=vicflintham.co.uk}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Royal Air Force Category:Camouflage patterns Category:Aircraft markings Category:20th-century military history of the United Kingdom