I already head my turn, but I got to think of this old AZ livery which was already replaced before I was born, so I can't say I really "miss" it, but I think it's absolutely gorgeous:







And I forgot the Braniff 'Jellybeans'!

flymco753 wrote:

AirTran had the best livery, change my mind.

I've no beef with that! The interesting thing about AirTran's was the color palette and the font. Most other liveries were designed to fit on an airplane. AirTran designed an image first then put it on an airplane--and it worked! I liked the tan better than the white, though.

Max Q wrote:

Antarius wrote:

Max Q wrote:

Interesting, I think it was classic and timeless

I dont disagree. And I have several pieces of scissor eagle AA memorabilia.

The problem is the newer birds werent metal. And the composite parts got painted, and they did not look the same. It looked like a poorly sown rag doll.

Timeless yes, iconic yes, practical no. And that's why I like both - the silver birds for their classy appearance and the new for the modern look. The new tails look great en masse, for example.

The only new aircraft with a composite fuselage at AA is the 787


The 737, all the AB narrowbodies, 757 / 767
777 and of course The exiting MD80s all have a metal fuselage


The silver fleet was sustainable if they chose to, the livery they chose is about the
Ugliest in the business

There are a large number of composite parts on the A300/A320/A330 series & the 787 are composite and do not paint well to polished aluminum look. Also the polishing wears off the paint faster. Unlike the all metal fuselages that were just polished metal. Was the MD-80 tail cone in new models composite. It was always painted grey on newer birds.

That 70s Philippine Airlines livery.

My favorites that I miss would have to be:

UA-Saul Bass & Battleship Gray
BA-Landor (looked especially good on Concorde. Think it would look good on the A380 as well)
Air Florida
DL- Widget
NK-Silver Digital paint (still a couple of those around)
PA- Blue cheatline and small titles (original 747 paintjob)
TW- Original globe livery (original livery for 707 & 747)
NW-Bowling Shoe & NW Orient Paint
JAL- tsurumaru 89-02 livery
BWIA - steel drum livery
Air Jamaica-yellow blue & orange
Valujet (it was a fun looking paint job even thought it was crappy airline)
US Airways - Navy blue
USAir- Polished metal, red cheatline, Navy Blue tail
PSA- Smile
SW-Canyon Gold (held its look over time unlike Canyon Blue which faded to purple)
I guess thats it for now. I can't remember any others I really pay attention to..

Now for the ones I HATE:
DH- current (looks incomplete)
AA- current (tail is too much)
Braniff- that orange looked like Schneider National with wings
NK- current (seriously? bright yellow?)

How about

Air Spain
Aviaco (Brown and Blue scheme)
Transeuropa
TAE

Just look at photos of Palma in the 70s and 80s and it makes your heart sink at all the wonderful colours we have lost over time

BOAC, Air Afrique, UTA (1970s), Sudan Airways, Qantas (1970s), Ethiopian (old style), SAS (Viking), Seaboard World Cargo

Max Q wrote:

Antarius wrote:

Max Q wrote:

The only new aircraft with a composite fuselage at AA is the 787


The 737, all the AB narrowbodies, 757 / 767
777 and of course The exiting MD80s all have a metal fuselage


The silver fleet was sustainable if they chose to, the livery they chose is about the
Ugliest in the business

I guess you forgot the painted underside of all the 737s delivered in the last several years (like 10). It isnt a question of all composite. Their fleet was starting to look patchy.

Theres a time to evolve. The circuit city route isnt always the best one.

Never saw any patchy aircraft, AA knew how to maintain that finish


They took delivery of their first A300’s in a grey painted finish, reportedly AB couldn’t
manufacture the skin to a uniform standard
but that wasn’t true, they found a way and
subsequent deliveries were all polished
aluminum


Earler aircraft were modified to the new standard and they looked outstanding



So, apart from the 787, all of AA’s current fleet could be changed back to polished aluminum, there’s no technical obstacle
to removing that obscenely ugly paint job
and doing so

Original all metal 738s



Patchy later 738s with composites etc. Notice how the ENTIRE underside of the aircraft is grey paint



Former gorgeous. Latter ugly.

BN727227Ultra wrote:

flymco753 wrote:

AirTran had the best livery, change my mind.

I've no beef with that! The interesting thing about AirTran's was the color palette and the font. Most other liveries were designed to fit on an airplane. AirTran designed an image first then put it on an airplane--and it worked! I liked the tan better than the white, though.

You’re right the tan was much better IMHO.

The United "Rhapsody in Blue" tulip by Pentagram was one of the most beautiful and near perfect designs, and effective branding. It would be so much better matched with Polaris today. Pentagram also understood that the devil is in the details...as bits and pieces of that branding system launched there was one brilliant move after another...like the coffee cup that was based on the angle of the tulip (or flying U as it should be called).

FatCat wrote:

It was a classic. Can't decide which was the better one.

This BA 747 is not in the complete Landor livery !

This photo presents a former BOAC aircraft after the launch of British Airways, it is only partially painted.

This 747 sports the former BOAC underside, with newly added BRITISH AIRWAYS titles and the new tail.

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Qantas/B ... 4xhg%3D%3D
This is one of my best. Among other things I like the warm colour of the cheat line. By the way what colour exactly is it? What would you call it?

Asiana brown

NZ321 wrote:

I loved the old Continental Airlines livery, frankly. The one from the 1980s that was phased out around 1992-3.

Agree. The proud bird with the golden tail ... and the jingle that accompanied the tv ads "we really move our tail for you..."

Add the orange and silver CPAir and Northeast Yellowbirds to my list

Oh well, my signature says it all.

Classic Pan Am
Flying Tigers
Eastern Airlines in silver
The final version of the red. white and blue United look

None of them probably would hold up today, but in their heydey, they looked better than most.

I liked the A340 in Air Jamaica’s colors. Too bad they weren’t able to continue operations.

Canadian Airlines - Proud wings livery absolutely loved it with CP Air from the 60s and 70s being a close second!!

BOAC definitively
VARIG with the blue windrose
Cruzeiro blue/grean
Transmerica Airlines (white T on Green)
The old KLM and Martinair striped liveries
Pan Am
Alliance Air with the Lion on the 747SP
the old SAA
Old ANA
Old Olympic
Old Mexicana gold
CP Air orange
Turkish striped
MALEV
Brannif
Maersk old clear blue
Alitalia old with full flag
Sudan Air yellow
Lybian gold
ElAl blue

Max Q wrote:

The worst mistake any airline has made [LFCR] was AA’s decision to ditch the iconic [LFCR] ‘Silver fleet’ and go to the bizarrely ugly paint job of today
The polished aluminum had a distinctive, made for purpose elegant look that was timeless and a powerful brand statement [LFCR]
Even with the arrival of more composite types they could have continued with a silver paint on those types, great shame [LFCR]

Max Q wrote:

The only new aircraft with a composite fuselage at AA is the 787 [LFCR] The 737, all the AB narrowbodies, 757 / 767 [LFCR] 777 and of course The exiting MD80s all have a metal fuselage [LFCR] The silver fleet was sustainable if they chose to, the livery they chose is about the [LFCR] Ugliest in the business

Jomar777 wrote:

They lost the Eagle (the new logo is very poor) and whatever you say, the aluminium/shiny livery was brilliant and special. Maybe they should update that rather than go to the actual grey which virtually disappear on cloudy days...

Max Q wrote:

Never saw any patchy aircraft, AA knew how to maintain that finish [LFCR] They took delivery of their first A300’s in a grey painted finish, reportedly AB couldn’t manufacture the skin to a uniform standard [LFCR] but that wasn’t true, they found a way and [LFCR] subsequent deliveries were all polished [LFCR] aluminum [LFCR] Earler aircraft were modified to the new standard and they looked outstanding [LFCR] So, apart from the 787, all of AA’s current fleet could be changed back to polished aluminum, there’s no
technical obstacle [LFCR] to removing that obscenely ugly paint job [LFCR] and doing so

TurboJet707 wrote:

As to the AA 'silver' livery: yes, I will surely miss the polished aluminum look, but I can see why a change was inevitable. The old jets looked splendid in bare metal, but with the newer ones, which have more and more surfaces, like engine nacelles and stabilizer, made from different materials, it started to look too patchy. And it wouldn't be possible on the 787 or A350 of course.

rbavfan wrote:

Polished silver paint does not work well. It looks fake vs the matched aluminum & polished frames. American also paid extra so that metal matched.

rbavfan wrote:

There are a large number of composite parts on the A300/A320/A330 series & the 787 are composite and do not paint well to polished aluminum look. Also the polishing wears off the paint faster. Unlike the all metal fuselages that were just polished metal. Was the MD-80 tail cone in new models composite. It was always painted grey on newer birds.

As TurboJet and Rbavfan note - the 787 might be the only aircraft in the AA fleet to use an entirely-composite fuselage but many others have and still do use a significant number of composite parts, and this is why the A300 was the death-knell for the polished-metal finish. The problem was not that Airbus could not manufacture the skin to any particular standard but rather that Airbus initially refused to go to the extra effort of selecting all the separate skin panels so that they would match and basically told AA that they were getting them painted or not at all.

Airbus later relented and provided the polished-metal finish, but even still, you can see that rather a lot of the airframe could not have this finish applied:



There is a lingering rumour about Airbus changing their mind too - it came very soon after AA decided to keep taking A300s and accelerated the retirement of the DC-10.

Now sure, the 757, 767, and 777 can pull off the bare-metal without too much trouble and with greater coverage than the A300s, but it doesn't change the fact that the vertical stabs are all composite, and so are the engine nacelles, and the wing-body fairings, and so on, and so forth. And what would have been done about the aircraft inherited from US? The A320 is in the same boat skin-wise as the A300...

gzm wrote:

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Qantas/Boeing-747-238B/1401664?qsp=eJwtjcEKwkAMRH%2Bl5KwHUSz0ZkHwVgXxHnYHLdZ2SQK6lP67cfH2eDPMzBSm0fCxa06ghhQs4UErSiz8UmpmeiK/J4nOdOHRWKt6V1e30/rYdl7USazNHkY2HEJAMsS/7yRCfhE0lM27f2wcIOfCtN27j72mgcsGjPuBluULGU4xhg%3D%3D
This is one of my best. Among other things I like the warm colour of the cheat line. By the way what colour exactly is it? What would you call it?

Ochre, I believe.

Delta Widget...BRING IT BACK

Here are my picks:
- TWA (most recent)
- SAS (the classic Viking ship livery)
- Air Portugal (before current TAP)
- Varig (last livery)
- Air Canada (before this last one - the ice blue)
- Dragonnair (classic red/gold)
- Cathay Pacific (prior to this last change)
- Ansett Australia (blue tail star flag)
- DHL (all yellow livery)
- Britannia
- DAN Air London
- British Caledonian

Braniff ultra without any question and would still be relevant to this very day.

I remember ba had a hybrid livery on one of their 737 which was silver and blue looked amazing.

Agree one of my favourites was bcal livery
A classic

CO meatball and even the previous one to that
The last two UA liveries prior to the merger with CO (blue rising and battleship)
The final TWA livery
I know I am in a minority here but AC's last one prior to the current update
LH livery with the cheatline and the silver belly

Love the current RJ and VN liveries

Been thinking of a few more...
Air Lanka
Cathay Pacific the green and white stripes
JAL with the red and black cheatlines
Northwest Orient circa late 70s early 80s
Iberia. .old scheme
BWIA ..Mid 80s ...the colours were nice too

I really liked the final US Airways livery. I wish AA had just put their logo on the US paint.

Braniff Flying Colors, Braniff Ultra, PSA (old and new), and Court!

Transbrasil 767’s looked great

Delta's "classic livery", especially on MD-11 and 727

Some of the classics that many love (and I do too) should still be flying as special liveries. Like the old Delta widget above on the MD-11 would look great on a 772. But, they had to change. I was witnessed many changes, although personally involved with just a couple, mostly they were done by close colleagues who told me everything (and I would be in the creative reviews for many). When a livery reaches a certain age and become very old to the average Joe, they become a bad thing for business and this has been proved out in research- I am not making this up, nor is an opinion. When VARIG came to us to change it was because their business was down and often it's 1950's/60's livery was sighted. Their old time management didn't want to change, they were very resistant until the livery was tested on Rio Sul (a much smaller division) and they could not ignore the response. They tried to ignore the research because they didnt like what it said: Brazilians and certainly international fliers in quant studies mentioned "they look so old I don't want to fly them"

They then came back and said "Ok we want our 747's to be able to stand next to BA or LH and look like RG deserves to be in the same league"

Which is why I think Landor did an A+ job on VARIG, we didn't throw the baby out with the bath water, we basically kept the same amazing letterforms (although fixed the weights and spacing) and kept the compass, updated the colors. Also in the research, international fliers had poor brand awareness: 1 they asked "what is a Varig?" and 2: "what country are they from" 3: "Oh, they look like a 3rd world airline" (yet, they were anything but 3rd world, VARIG was once the pinnacle of glamor). I think the new branding brought her the life she needed...sadly in the long run it wasn't enough.

Using retro liveries pull at consumer/flier/employee heart strings is great when you're a legacy airline. And having just one A320 (United are you listening) is NOT ENOUGH!

Despite it being very basic I will miss the 1984 QF livery, I grew up around it and whilst the current logo still has the same basic jist to it it just isnt the same.

BA's landor livery was a classic too.

factsonly wrote:

This BA 747 is not in the complete Landor livery !

This photo presents a former BOAC aircraft after the launch of British Airways, it is only partially painted.

This 747 sports the former BOAC underside, with newly added BRITISH AIRWAYS titles and the new tail.

Didn't know!
Thanks!

The TWA "twin-globes" livery is the one for me, probably because it's the one I grew up with when. When we got a take a flight across country every couple of years it was always on TWA, and that was the branding at the time. I even had a plastic model 727 with that livery in my bedroom for most of my childhood, so it's thoroughly ingrained in me.

Personally, I really enjoyed the old AA livery, the old Air Canada (blue, and then the red and silver ones they had on their 747-200) , Canadian Airlines, old FedEx, the PSA smile, Eastern, the old Alitalia and the most was the last Delta livery (especially the colorful tail)

TR763 wrote:

Oh well, my signature says it all.

The one on your signature was better than the one on the photo on your post. I remember those times...

XAM2175 wrote:

Max Q wrote:

The worst mistake any airline has made [LFCR] was AA’s decision to ditch the iconic [LFCR] ‘Silver fleet’ and go to the bizarrely ugly paint job of today
The polished aluminum had a distinctive, made for purpose elegant look that was timeless and a powerful brand statement [LFCR]
Even with the arrival of more composite types they could have continued with a silver paint on those types, great shame [LFCR]

Max Q wrote:

The only new aircraft with a composite fuselage at AA is the 787 [LFCR] The 737, all the AB narrowbodies, 757 / 767 [LFCR] 777 and of course The exiting MD80s all have a metal fuselage [LFCR] The silver fleet was sustainable if they chose to, the livery they chose is about the [LFCR] Ugliest in the business

Jomar777 wrote:

They lost the Eagle (the new logo is very poor) and whatever you say, the aluminium/shiny livery was brilliant and special. Maybe they should update that rather than go to the actual grey which virtually disappear on cloudy days...

Max Q wrote:

Never saw any patchy aircraft, AA knew how to maintain that finish [LFCR] They took delivery of their first A300’s in a grey painted finish, reportedly AB couldn’t manufacture the skin to a uniform standard [LFCR] but that wasn’t true, they found a way and [LFCR] subsequent deliveries were all polished [LFCR] aluminum [LFCR] Earler aircraft were modified to the new standard and they looked outstanding [LFCR] So, apart from the 787, all of AA’s current fleet could be changed back to polished aluminum, there’s no
technical obstacle [LFCR] to removing that obscenely ugly paint job [LFCR] and doing so

TurboJet707 wrote:

As to the AA 'silver' livery: yes, I will surely miss the polished aluminum look, but I can see why a change was inevitable. The old jets looked splendid in bare metal, but with the newer ones, which have more and more surfaces, like engine nacelles and stabilizer, made from different materials, it started to look too patchy. And it wouldn't be possible on the 787 or A350 of course.

rbavfan wrote:

Polished silver paint does not work well. It looks fake vs the matched aluminum & polished frames. American also paid extra so that metal matched.

rbavfan wrote:

There are a large number of composite parts on the A300/A320/A330 series & the 787 are composite and do not paint well to polished aluminum look. Also the polishing wears off the paint faster. Unlike the all metal fuselages that were just polished metal. Was the MD-80 tail cone in new models composite. It was always painted grey on newer birds.

As TurboJet and Rbavfan note - the 787 might be the only aircraft in the AA fleet to use an entirely-composite fuselage but many others have and still do use a significant number of composite parts, and this is why the A300 was the death-knell for the polished-metal finish. The problem was not that Airbus could not manufacture the skin to any particular standard but rather that Airbus initially refused to go to the extra effort of selecting all the separate skin panels so that they would match and basically told AA that they were getting them painted or not at all.

Airbus later relented and provided the polished-metal finish, but even still, you can see that rather a lot of the airframe could not have this finish applied:



There is a lingering rumour about Airbus changing their mind too - it came very soon after AA decided to keep taking A300s and accelerated the retirement of the DC-10.

Now sure, the 757, 767, and 777 can pull off the bare-metal without too much trouble and with greater coverage than the A300s, but it doesn't change the fact that the vertical stabs are all composite, and so are the engine nacelles, and the wing-body fairings, and so on, and so forth. And what would have been done about the aircraft inherited from US? The A320 is in the same boat skin-wise as the A300...

gzm wrote:

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Qantas/Boeing-747-238B/1401664?qsp=eJwtjcEKwkAMRH%2Bl5KwHUSz0ZkHwVgXxHnYHLdZ2SQK6lP67cfH2eDPMzBSm0fCxa06ghhQs4UErSiz8UmpmeiK/J4nOdOHRWKt6V1e30/rYdl7USazNHkY2HEJAMsS/7yRCfhE0lM27f2wcIOfCtN27j72mgcsGjPuBluULGU4xhg%3D%3D
This is one of my best. Among other things I like the warm colour of the cheat line. By the way what colour exactly is it? What would you call it?

Ochre, I believe.

Great input!!

However, as we all know nowadays, we can actually paint the frame rather than leave the polished (no longer existent in good quantities...) metal.

I mean: you would certainly be able to paint the aircraft to at least emulate that. An example is Aeroflot although on a more conservative way. Their Silver is much better than the greyish used by AA which emulates more Qatar Airways one. Only that Qatar's one kind of work when you consider the landscape around the Middle East and at Hamad Airport.

The Gold used on Gulf Airlines until recently also highlights what you can do if you do not become over conservative although they apparently are changing livery...

Also, remember: a lot of complains come also stern form the loss of their AA Logo which was iconic and is much better than that Half Open Envelope which they insist in call eagle...

I liked every NW livery except for the Bowling Shoe (although the N/W icon was good, but that's all). I also liked every pre-merger UA livery except for the Battleship. There's something about grey paint on civil passenger planes that I really, really hate. I can't put my finger on it... maybe it looks too military or maybe it looks too industrial, as if the plane used to be white but got stained over time. But the final NW livery and the final pre-merger UA livery were both very underrated and might be my favorites.

I have a soft-spot for colorful 1970s liveries, especially Saul Bass ones. UA & CO looked great in this era.

UA's current livery is just ok, I don't hate it but it's on the wrong airline and is quite dated at this point.

I like AA's current tail scheme in particular although the billboard titles get "hole-punched" by the windows, which is dumb. DL's current scheme still looks great 12 years later. But I don't think AA has had a good eagle since the Astrojet days. Even in their classic bare-metal stripe livery that lasted for decades, I didn't realize there was an eagle until somebody told me. I thought it was some sort of ribbon (although that might be because I was young when I found out).

DL's classic widget scheme is pretty good except why did everything have to be slanted? Italics in the title, widgets acting like they are getting blown over in the wind... not a fan of that aspect, but love the stripes. Their first DC-9s with the rotated widget looked cool. I think the Ron Allen livery was very underrated, at least on the fuselage and engines (maybe not the tail). Would've looked great if there was a better widget on the tail.

AC's new livery looks fantastic but there hasn't been an AC livery for decades that I didn't think was at least decent. I also like the Rouge livery, even if the airline itself isn't very pleasant.

Jomar777 wrote:

However, as we all know nowadays, we can actually paint the frame rather than leave the polished (no longer existent in good quantities...) metal.
I mean: you would certainly be able to paint the aircraft to at least emulate that. An example is Aeroflot although on a more conservative way. ...
The Gold used on Gulf Airlines until recently also highlights what you can do if you do not become over conservative although they apparently are changing livery...
Also, remember: a lot of complains come also stern form the loss of their AA Logo which was iconic and is much better than that Half Open Envelope which they insist in call eagle...

Oh yes, very true, but it's been mentioned up-thread and in previous discussions that metallic silver paint is still a distinct look to polished aluminium, so it's important to not think that that AA's previous livery could be indistinguishably re-created with paint.

Plus, truly "metallic" paints achieve their finish by actually including metal flakes in the base paint, which is then overlaid with a clear sealant to impart the gloss finish. This increases the material and labour cost of the paintjob, and depending on the specific paint, also create issues with variations in exact colour and finish between different batches of paint and the way they've aged. Not a problem on a new all-over paintjob, but potentially noticeable on replacement panels or partial re-paints.

On top of all this, they are usually heavier too - which becomes noticeable even with "normal" colours. I recall reading that the All-Black 77W NZ fly weighs 91-odd kg more purely as a result of the paint, and QF's Wunala Dreaming scheme was apparently so much heavier than normal that the aircraft had a separate Performance Manual.

That does also remind me of a recent new-user of silver paint - QF's 2016 livery, which re-introduces the highlight stripe between the white fuselage and the red tail (the 1987 had a thin gold band and the 2007 had neither).

As a point of comparison to bare metal:



Of particular note too is that the shaded portion of the roo's tail, which I had expected to be halftoned like BA's Chatham Dockyard tail, appears to instead be a Scotchlite-style retroreflective adhesive:

Max Q wrote:

Antarius wrote:

Max Q wrote:

The only new aircraft with a composite fuselage at AA is the 787


The 737, all the AB narrowbodies, 757 / 767
777 and of course The exiting MD80s all have a metal fuselage


The silver fleet was sustainable if they chose to, the livery they chose is about the
Ugliest in the business

I guess you forgot the painted underside of all the 737s delivered in the last several years (like 10). It isnt a question of all composite. Their fleet was starting to look patchy.

Theres a time to evolve. The circuit city route isnt always the best one.

Never saw any patchy aircraft, AA knew how to maintain that finish


They took delivery of their first A300’s in a grey painted finish, reportedly AB couldn’t
manufacture the skin to a uniform standard
but that wasn’t true, they found a way and
subsequent deliveries were all polished
aluminum


Earler aircraft were modified to the new standard and they looked outstanding



So, apart from the 787, all of AA’s current fleet could be changed back to polished aluminum, there’s no technical obstacle
to removing that obscenely ugly paint job
and doing so

In the final years of the classic livery, the bottom of the 737s and the cargo doors were painted silver. You can still see it with the heritage jets.



The new tails really do look beautiful all lined up:

OB1504 wrote:

Max Q wrote:

Antarius wrote:

I guess you forgot the painted underside of all the 737s delivered in the last several years (like 10). It isnt a question of all composite. Their fleet was starting to look patchy.

Theres a time to evolve. The circuit city route isnt always the best one.

Never saw any patchy aircraft, AA knew how to maintain that finish


They took delivery of their first A300’s in a grey painted finish, reportedly AB couldn’t
manufacture the skin to a uniform standard
but that wasn’t true, they found a way and
subsequent deliveries were all polished
aluminum


Earler aircraft were modified to the new standard and they looked outstanding



So, apart from the 787, all of AA’s current fleet could be changed back to polished aluminum, there’s no technical obstacle
to removing that obscenely ugly paint job
and doing so

In the final years of the classic livery, the bottom of the 737s and the cargo doors were painted silver. You can still see it with the heritage jets.



The new tails really do look beautiful all lined up:

The classic polished aluminum was stunning


Sorry but AA’s new livery is a mistake and
a huge step backward, the grey fuselage is
not too bad although boring, it’s the tail
design that’s abysmal, it looks cheap and tacky

PSA was great and ANA is still really sharp

Max Q wrote:

OB1504 wrote:

Max Q wrote:

Never saw any patchy aircraft, AA knew how to maintain that finish


They took delivery of their first A300’s in a grey painted finish, reportedly AB couldn’t
manufacture the skin to a uniform standard
but that wasn’t true, they found a way and
subsequent deliveries were all polished
aluminum


Earler aircraft were modified to the new standard and they looked outstanding



So, apart from the 787, all of AA’s current fleet could be changed back to polished aluminum, there’s no technical obstacle
to removing that obscenely ugly paint job
and doing so

In the final years of the classic livery, the bottom of the 737s and the cargo doors were painted silver. You can still see it with the heritage jets.



The new tails really do look beautiful all lined up:

The classic polished aluminum was stunning


Sorry but AA’s new livery is a mistake and
a huge step backward, the grey fuselage is
not too bad although boring, it’s the tail
design that’s abysmal, it looks cheap and tacky

Why even start a thread if all you do is repeat your original opinion with zero regard for anything being discussed? We get it, you don't like it.

OB1504 wrote:

In the final years of the classic livery, the bottom of the 737s and the cargo doors were painted silver. You can still see it with the heritage jets.

I would personally call that grey vs silver. Either way, the underside and cargo doors were clearly visible as distinct pieces on the aircraft vs the early build 738s which were uniformly silver. With the 787s arriving, the fleet wasn't going to be able to maintain a silver look anymore. They would be half (738) to fully painted (787), which probably prompted the change

The cardinal sin by American, IMO, was dropping the scissor eagle for that absurdly abstract blue and red slash. The scissor eagle would have gone along great with the new livery.

Jamake1 wrote:

Texas International

Yessir

I’m thrilled that everyone hates the new AA eagle design- it’s a design catastrophe! Nothing wrong with using the scissor eagle which was timeless. It would have worked just fine with the new American flag graphic on the tail.
I sat next to a young Brazilian citizen on UA down to São Paulo on Wednesday night. I’d bet he was just under 30. We struck up a conversation and I mentioned VARIG and his response was frightening: “oh, yeah, I think I remember that airline? Was it blue?”
I was amazed and saddened. Would a 28 year old American not know what PanAm was? Jeez, I felt old!

VC10er wrote:

Would a 28 year old American not know what PanAm was? Jeez, I felt old!

Honestly, I wouldn't be all that surprised. Brands need constant maintenance to stay relevant, after all. Even companies that are still active but have moved into less-obvious business sectors will fade with time - look at IBM's profile with the general public now verses in the late '80s, for example.

Equatoriana "psychedelic" from the 70's