airplane livery

Brussels Airlines “Atomium” livery

liveries, , ,

(Courtesy Visit Brussels)

Brussels Airlines’ newest icon plane honors the Atomium

Designed and built for the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958 and created to honor the metals industry and the atomic era, the futuristic-looking Atomium monument is still around.

The structure wasn’t supposed to last beyond the fair’s run, but today it is a tourist destination, event venue, museum and the iconic symbol of Brussels and Belgium.

Now it’s also the inspiration for the newest livery in Brussels Airlines’ Belgian Icons series.

This livery design, by Belgian architect Thomas Faes, of Faes Architecture, was the winner in a Brussels Airlines contest that drew more than 900 designs seeking to capture the ‘essence’ of Belgium.

To transform the design into an airplane paint job required over 400 liters of paint and took about 2,400 hours to complete.

And while the outside of this Airbus A320 is pretty swanky, take a look at the inside of the aircraft. It tells the story of the Atomium structure with images of original sketches, historical photos and present-day imagery.

The other Belgian Icons airplanes

The Brussels Airlines Icons liveries have paid tribute to a wide variety of icons in Belgian culture, including the Smurfs characters and artists Magritte and Bruegel. Several of the special liveries have been retired, but liveries honoring Tintin, the Red Devils and Red Flames men’s and women’s soccer teams, and the Tomorrowland festival are still in motion.

Icelandair’s cool new glacier themed airplane

liveries, , , ,

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.

 

 

Virgin America celebrate SF Giants

liveries, , ,

Virgin America Plane Decal Mockup Sergio_edited

Mockup, courtesy Virgin America

If, like Virgin America, you’re a fan of the SF Giants, then keep an eye on the sky for the carrier’s Airbus A320 airplane painted with a 2016 SF Giants aircraft design.

The “Fly Bye Baby” aircraft features star pitcher Sergio Romo on the fuselage, winding up for a pitch.

The airline is celebrating its ninth birthday at San Francisco’s AT&T Park on August 20 – when the SF Giants take on the Mets – by giving the first 40,000 attendees a two-for-one Virgin America flight voucher.

 

Win a plane with the new Air New Zealand livery

Contests, liveries, ,

Take a look at the new Air New Zealand livery bearing the New Zealand fern:

ANZ New Livery

Pretty, right?

The new livery is being rolled out across most all of Air New Zealand’s domestic and international aircraft and there’s even a chance to win your own – scale model – version of an Airbus A320 with the design. Download a paper plane version of the plane and follow the instructions for sharing a photo of what you create on Instagram or Twitter.

ScreenHunter_52 Sep. 26 21.27

Hello Kitty plane coming to U.S.

liveries, ,

EVA Hello Kitty Happy Music Jet h

Good news for Hello Kitty fans!

Eva Air is bringing its first long-range Hello Kitty-themed jet to Los Angeles International Airport next week and, like the other Hello Kitty-themed planes the airline flies in Asia, this Boeing 777-300 ER plane will be painted with its own Hello Kitty design.

Inside the plane there will be oodles of Hello Kitty service items, some of which will certainly look like this:

EVA Hello Kitty child's meal_small

EVA Hello Kitty Seatback Covers small

This new Hello Kitty Jet will make three trips a week between Los Angeles and Taipei.

Eva Air already has five shorter-range aircraft that it operates within Asia, each with a different livery design and each with more than 100 Hello Kitty-themed passenger-service items.

Finnair “forest dwellers” livery by Marimekko

liveries, ,

Finnish airline Finnair and Marimekko, the Finnish design and fashion house known for bright colors and patterns, make a lovely couple.

Last October, the two companies got together to paint a plane in Marimekko’s Unikko (poppy) print.

finnair poppy

Next week another Marimekko-themed plane will take to the sky with this Finnish Airbus 300 adorned with a livery based on Marimekko’s “forest dwellers” (Metsänväki) pattern, in shades of green, brown and blue designed “to tell the story of Finnish nature and the views seen when looking down from an aircraft window.”

Finnair, Marimmeko

The Marimekko influence continues inside the airplane as well:

finnair marimekko dinnerware

Beginning next week, Business Class passengers will be eating their meals from new Marimekko tableware.
And this summer, Marimekko napkins, blankets, pillows and head rest covers will be introduced as well.
And, back in Economy Class, the same prints will show up on paper cups, headrest covers, fleece blankets and pillows.

Finnair Marimekko pillow

Like what you see? You’ll be able to buy some of the items on-line and on the planes.

Here’s a lovely video that includes details about the design of the patterns.

Alaska Airlines’ paint the plane contest

Design, liveries,

Alaska Airlines is having a Paint the Plane contest.

The airline has decided to paint a 737 with a Hawaiian theme and asked Hawaii schoolchildren to submit their ideas. These three designs have been chosen as finalists and Hawaiian residents are being asked to vote for a winner. The winning design will get painted on a plane and the winning artist will get a$ $5,000 scholarship and a trip for four to any Alaska Airlines destination.

Here are the finalists:

Sophia Cleek’s design

Izabella Hamilton’s design

Each of these designs looks pretty snazzy. If you’re a resident of Hawaii you can vote for your favorite here. The rest of us will just have to wait and see which design wins and wait to see the newly painted plane flying by.
Voting ends December 18, 2012. The winner will be announced January 10, 2013.

World’s largest salmon lands in Anchorage

Airplanes, , ,

This is just plane fun.

On Thursday, Alaska Airlines unveiled the world’s largest salmon: a 91,000 pound, 129-foot long fish-themed Boeing 737-800 at a ceremony in Anchorage.

Alaska Airlines unveiled the world’s largest salmon: the Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II

The new “Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II” is almost identical to an earlier version of the paint scheme the airline used on a 737-400 in 2005. (That plane was re-painted with the carrier’s signature Eskimo livery last year.) This new design is about nine feet longer than the original one and features fish scales on the winglets and a salmon pink-colored Alaska script across the fuselage.

The design was produced in partnership with ASMI, which promotes wild, natural and sustainable Alaska seafood.

Here’s some of the trivia Alaska Airlines has shared about the Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II and a fun video of the plane getting painted.

• The 129-foot-long Boeing 737-800 has a wingspan of 117 feet and a cruising speed of 530 mph.
• Mylar paint was used to create an iridescent sparkle over the nearly 3,500 fish scales & to make the painting 3-D.
• More than 90 percent of the fuselage was airbrushed with 21 unique colors to create the lifelike king salmon.
• A crew of eight worked around the clock for 27 days at Associated Painters Inc. in Oklahoma City to paint the plane.
• Mark Boyle, a Seattle-based wildlife artist, created this design, the design for the first Salmon-Thirty-Salmon plane and a dozen other special paint themes for Alaska Airlines, including the Spirit of Disneyland I and II.

(Photos & video courtesy of Alaska Airlines)