Special Liveries & Paint Jobs Volume I

I'm expecting August to be a slow month due to a lack of any kind of aviation event going on. Maybe I should find some time to go to an aviation museum... Normally, the Oregon International Air Show should have taken place this month but it got moved to July as you may have noted last month because we were originally expecting a performance from the Navy Blue Angels and the only time closest to the time of the Oregon Air Show was that day in July. But that never happened due to the federal budget cuts and the event was already scheduled. Also, what should have taken place this month was the annual Hot August Flights fly-in and car show event hosted by the Flight Deck Restaurant here in Salem, Oregon but for some reason, it's not happening this year; from what I heard, part of the reason has to do with significant changes in the board members in charge of the event.

So in lieu of these preferred events (not to mention the preferred updates in the form of new photo galleries!), I decided to create a montage of special aircraft liveries and unique paint jobs. At this point, I've taken enough photos of Reno Air Racers, Airliners, and other kinds of aircraft to get to this point so I figured I could start a volume of montages showing special aircraft paint jobs. That's part of the fun when you go aircraft spotting because you never know what you might see; it's like fishing or perhaps the lottery. It's actually quite cool when you see special or commemorative liveries adorned to an airliner because you know it's one-of-a-kind and sometimes rare to see.

Mainline Carriers

I think it's great that airlines like Southwest have so many kinds of special paint jobs on their 737:

I posted this one before; SWA's 'Arizona One' paint job spotted at PDX.
I still got A LOT of SWA liveries to catch!

Though Southwest uses a common livery, they can spice things up with a little sticker commemorating or advertising something, like this one:

Notice the 'FREE BAGS FLY HERE' sticker? SWA Boeing 737-7H4 (N455WN) departing PDX while advertising something that pleases most air travellers that you just can't seem to get on other airlines.

Some airlines have paint schemes indicating their sponsorship of a major sports team. Being here in the Pacific Northwest, I see a lot of Alaska Airlines and it's sister carrier Horizon Air:

Though I prefer better shots of the individual aircraft, this is worth showing off:
Alaska Airlines have their fair share of special liveries ranging from their signature Eskimo with the Hawaiian lei to celebrate service to Hawaii, Disney and the 'Make a Wish' Foundation and the Portland Timbers soccer team livery.

Though a common trend and very identical and repetitive, it's sometimes nice to see airlines paint their aircraft in the livery of the airline alliance they're in:

Though I would prefer to have the entire aircraft airframe in the shot unobstructed, you can't win 'em all...
Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-832 (N3761R) in SkyTeam colors at SLC.

Again, another one posted before being a photo taken a few years ago now; All Nippon Airways Boeing 777-281 (JA712A) in Star Alliance livery departing for a domestic flight out of Komatsu, Japan.

I think most airlines that are a part of one of the three major airline alliance groups has at least one or two aircraft in their respective fleets in a alliance livery.

Regional Carriers

A lot of people tend to gripe about how crappy regional air carriers are and how cramped they can get... From a spotter's perspective, regional jets and turbo-prop airliners tend to get old really fast; in today's overall economy, over half of the domestic air travel service is contracted to regional airlines by the mainline companies. The regionals fly the plane and manage the crews to fly and service them while the mainliners sell the seats. But some regional carriers have special paint jobs that might be uncommon and some might be commemorative. Let's start with a large regional carrier like SkyWest:

SkyWest typically has most of their aircraft painted in the colors of their partners (United Express, Delta Connection being the most common and abundant; and more recently, US Airways Express, Alaska Airlines, and American Eagle started having a few routes operated by SkyWest) and those planes with their respective paint jobs are dedicated to the routes where the mainline carriers are contracting them to. But I guess what I can consider "special liveries" are those independent SkyWest liveries where these planes can be interchangeable or be put on rotation. Here are some notable examples:

Pictured together are two Embraer EMB-120ER Brasilias at PDX for comparison; N270YV in the independent SkyWest livery while N234SW is in United Express livery. Most EMB-120s seen here are relegated to West Coast commuter routes.

That's the case with SkyWest's Brasilias but for the regional jets they operate, it's a different story:

SkyWest Canadair CL-600-2B19 CRJ-200ER (N947SW) parked at PDX on the Alaska/Horizon Air side of the terminal. All SkyWest CRJs branded with Alaska Airlines livery are CRJ-700s (previously operated by Horizon Air before being removed from their fleet); seeing N947SW parked where Horizon and Alaska usually park could possibly mean one of the Alaska Airlines-branded CRJs was unavailable, passenger load factors were unusual that day, resulting in usage of one of these independently branded SkyWest jets or there wasn't simply enough room where SkyWest usually parks.

Although, SkyWest Airlines along with most regional airlines tend to reshape their fleet image depending on where and for whom they've been contracted to fly. Some of these independently-branded regional jets have been known to previously wore liveries of they mainline carriers they' did business for.

Now let's look at ACTUAL special liveries of a regional/commuter airline. With most of my photos originating from the Pacific Northwest, Horizon Air and their Dash-8 Q400s are a common sight. What's cool about Horizon Air is their liveries showing support for state colleges in states they fly to. Here are the "college-themed" Dash-8 Q400s I've managed to photograph at PDX so far:

N403QX in Montana State University Bobcats special livery.
Note that its was still branded as Horizon Air and not yet as Alaska/Horizon.

N414QX in San Diego State University Aztecs special livery.

N402QX in University of Montana Grizzlies special livery.

N440QX in Oregon State University Beavers special livery.
Funny to think this is the livery I've seen the most out of all the special Horizon Air liveries!

N407QX in University of Oregon Ducks special livery.

N435QX in University of Washington Huskies special livery, seen here departing PDX.

N400QX in University of Idaho Vandals special livery, seen here departing PDX.

I think I only have two college-themes left to photograph from Horizon Air.

Another unique "regional" paint scheme comes from Japan's Fuji Dream Airlines because so far, all aircraft in their fleet are different colors:

Fuji Dream Airlines Embraer ERJ-170-100SU (JA04FJ), the green one and the fourth  aircraft in FDA's fleet.

Fuji Dream Airlines Embraer ERJ-175-200SD (JA03FJ), the pink one and the third aircraft in the FDA fleet.

Other Cool One-of-a-Kind Paint Jobs

Best place I can think of is the Reno Air Races! Where else, do you find modified or stock World War II-era fighters all unique? Special thing about a lot of World War II-era aircraft is that a lot of them have something called nose-art, usually something suggestive or even sexual with a pin-up girl image; I'll save that for later... or never. We'll see. For the time being, let's focus on some of the most pimped-out Reno Air Racers out there today!

Hawker Sea Fury FB11 (NX232MB), #232 'September Fury'

Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat G-58 (N777L), #77 'Rare Bear'

North American P-51D Mustang (N71FT), #7 'Strega'

North American P-51D Mustang (N6WJ), #38 'Precious Metal'

Hawker Sea Fury F20 (NX20SF), #8 'Dreadnought'

North American P-51D Mustang (N991R), #11 'Miss America'

North American P-51D Mustang (NL151D), #44 'Sparky'

Hawker Sea Fury FB10 (N71GB), #71 'Sawbones'

Avioane Yak-3U/R-2000 (N46463), #33 'Steadfast'

Gotta say, I'm looking forward to Reno next month. The 50th year of Air Racing will no doubt be a special one.

So there you have it! A montage of some of the special aircraft paint schemes and liveries I've photographed over that last year or so.