airplane paint jobs

Vote for a United plane design

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There’s one more day to cast a vote in United Airlines’ Her Art Here contest, which is giving two women artists a chance to have their work featured on a Boeing 757 aircraft.

Judges narrowed down submitted artwork to six finalists – three for a design to represent New York/New Jersey and three for a California-themed design.

Now the public is being asked to vote for one finalist from each region. Voting ends April 19.

Here are few of more designs that made the cut:

Look here to see the designs for all six finalists and to cast your vote.

Two winners, one representing each region, will be given a chance to work alongside renowned artist Shantell Martin to finalize a design for their respective region’s plane.

The finalists and the winners will also get open gallery shows and have their art work on display inside United Airlines terminals through 2019.

Winners also get 100,000 MileagePlus award miles and the two winning artists will also each get $10,000.

The final designs will be on planes this fall.

ANA’s 1st A380 looks like a turtle

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All Nippon Airways (ANA) is celebrating the rollout of its first Airbus A380 from the Airbus Paintshop in Hamburg, Germany.  And the plane is pretty darn cute. 

The new plane sports a paint job featuring the Hawaiian green sea turtle, known as “Honu.” The turtle not only makes a cute livery, it has special meaning: in the Hawaiian language, the sea turtle symbolizes good luck and prosperity.

ANA is scheduled to receive this new A380 jet, nicknamed FLYING HONU, in March 2019. The plane’s inaugural flight is scheduled to leave from Tokyo Narita Airport and travel to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu on May 24, 2019.

ANA is set to get three Airbus A380s and each will feature livery in different colors and with different designs.

The blue livery of the Flying Honu, the first aircraft, links ANA’s corporate color scheme with Hawaii’s blue skies.

The second aircraft is expected to begin operating in July 2019 and it will have emerald green livery inspired by the  waters of Hawaii. 

The third A380 will be orange, in reference to the beautiful Hawaiian sunset.

“The Airbus A380 will be an important addition to ANA’s current fleet and it will allow passengers to reach the scenic islands of Hawaii in comfort and style,” said Yutaka Ito, ANA’s Executive Vice President. “The customized livery adds a personal touch that will make the trip that much more memorable,” he added. 

Icelandair’s cool new glacier themed airplane

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Photo by Harriet Baskas

Icelandair which names all its planes after Icelandic volcanoes, has launched a glacier themed Boeing 757-200 named Vatnajökull, in honor of the Vatnajökull glacier, which is home to three active volcanoes.

To celebrate, Icelandair filled the plane with employees, guests and journalists – including me – and on May 13 set off for a quick, one-hour flight between Kefklavik Airport near Reykjavik and Egilsstaoir Airport, with a route that went right over the glacier the plane is named after.

 

Before we left, guests were invited to Icelandair’s new Saga club lounge at the Keflavik Airport, where a chunk of ice from the glacier was on display.

Photo: Harriet Baskas

Weather kept passengers from actually seeing the glacier during our flight – not unusual, according to the captain – but that didn’t really matter because there are plenty of glacier features on this plane – starting with the paint job, which was spray painted by hand.

Photo: Harriet Baskas

courtesy Icelandair

Inside, there are plenty of glacier themed items as well; everything from ambient LED blue lighting, to headrests, drink cups, napkins, chocolates, amenity kits and airsickness bags.

Headrests – photo Harriet Baskas

Glacier note in airplane restroom – photo Harriet Baskas

Tin Icelandair menity kit cover – photo Harriet Baskas

Airsickness bag – photo Harriet Baskas

You can learn more about Icelandair’s new glacier themed plane, see which routes it is flying and which airports it will stop and, better yet, put in a request for the plane to come to your town, here.

While the glacier themed plane is cool, it’s not Icelandair’s only special livery. In 2015, the airline rolled out the Hekla Aurora, which was inspired by the northern lights.