Return of the Starliner

[carebear]

Well, kinda.

Alaska Airlines just rolled out a new 737 that is painted and logo'd to match it's original DC-3 from 1945 (includes a pic of that christening).

This link goes to a slideshow.

http://www.alaskasworld.com/ "Starliner 75"

 

[WH1]

Amazing looking bird, are they planning on doing more in that scheme?

 

[Orgetorix]

Fixed direct link to the slideshow here.

 

[The Wingnut]

This is becoming a trend, a neat one at that. I believe United recently did the same, mimicing a 707 with a 757.

Edit: whoops, correction, it's a AA 737 in 'Astrojet' livery.

 

[carebear]

I have no idea if they are planning to do more, but that looks much better to me than the white paint job with stripes.

Although the current Eskimo gent's face on the tail is pretty iconic for Alaska Air and goes back to the 60s-70s, when they tried to get rid of him a few years back there was an uprising.

Thank you Orgetorix.

 

[CharlieH.]

That's a fine looking paint scheme.

(I sure wish the railroads did the same and resurrected some vintage paint jobs!)

 

[Hamsterjeep]

Only one left flying...,

AA only did three planes in the "ASTROJET" retro livery- a 727 just before they all went to the boneyard, a 757: N679AN nose number 5EL which was repainted back to the standard paint colors after the last "C" check in Tulsa....
and a 737-800, N351AA, nose number 3CF and I believe it is still in the retro colors, but I haven't seen it in a while. It looks really cool when the fuselage is polished after a MBV-main base visit, to the point of looking like it's chromed! In service they lose the "shininess" and turn a pewter color. AA does not paint the planes, and keeps them in bare aluminum. Whether or not it keeps the retro scheme is anybody's guess.
The only other AA plane in those colors is the DC-3 at the C.R.Smith Museum at DFW.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Here is a nice big file of the Alaska 737 in it's anniversary livery.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h44/dixon-cannon/ASlivery.jpg

-dixon cannon

 

[carebear]

Note the vintage Boeing logo on the nose.

 

[RAF Man]

A truly amazing colour scheme. Would like to see it over here in the UK for sure, but that's not going to happen.

 

[Baggers]

AA only did three planes in the "ASTROJET" retro livery- a 727 just before they all went to the boneyard, a 757: N679AN nose number 5EL which was repainted back to the standard paint colors after the last "C" check in Tulsa....
and a 737-800, N351AA, nose number 3CF and I believe it is still in the retro colors, but I haven't seen it in a while. It looks really cool when the fuselage is polished after a MBV-main base visit, to the point of looking like it's chromed! In service they lose the "shininess" and turn a pewter color. AA does not paint the planes, and keeps them in bare aluminum. Whether or not it keeps the retro scheme is anybody's guess.
The only other AA plane in those colors is the DC-3 at the C.R.Smith Museum at DFW.

I saw a bird in retro AA livery at DFW back on the 4th of March when we were flying up to Colorado, but I thought it looked too big for a 737.

Seeing that red lightning bolt stripe down the fuselage along with the old "AA" logo on the tail really brought back some pleasant memories.

Cheers!