American Airline’s first Boeing 777-300ER (N717AN) is showing signs of their new livery. Photo by James Hackney.
American Airline’s first Boeing 777-300ER (N717AN) has shown up at Paine Field, and not many were expecting to see a gray body with a white tail. Where is the polished aluminum? Is this a special livery for the 300ER or is this American moving to a completely new design? It looks like that they are in the process of updating their livery.
“It’s no secret by now that AA will be taking delivery of new fleet types in the coming months/years, and that includes composite aircraft,”Andrea Huguely AA spokesperson told AirlineReporter.com. “Obviously those aircraft cannot be the polished aluminum that AA currently has, so additional paint will be inevitable.”
Based on the design on the 300ER, it doesn’t look like American is just looking to paint the aluminum areas gray, as they did with their original Airbus A300’s, but they are working towards a new design. On the 777, it doesn’t matter as much, but with the Boeing 787, the fuselage is not made out of aluminum, which is forcing American to re-think their design.
At this point the airline is not hinting what the new livery will look like, but it appears the tail will be white, with a gray fuselage (yes, I am that good at being an investigative journalist). I welcome the new livery with open arms, since I have not been a fan of American’s current livery, for quite sometime — but I know many of you disagree with me. American has already announced big changes with their future interiors and I am hoping their new livery will be equally impressive.
A possible mock-up of the new American Airline’s livery done by Anthony Harding.
UPDATED: Above is a mock up of what American’s new livery might look like done by Anthony Harding. From his website:
“I wanted to see if I could create an effective evolution of the current brand. I wanted a bold new look for American Airlines, one that looks classy, distinguished, and ultra-modern with highly geometric, sharp angles and a metallic feel that creates a sense of strength and security. I evolved the Scissor Eagle logo to a more abstract form. The new ’œEagle’ is not just an abstract eagle, but also an abstract representation of the American flag. The overall brand beyond the livery would take heavy influence from timeless Art Deco, Gothic and neo-Art Deco design which symbolizes American strength, freedom, and an overall classicism that distinguishes the brand from the competition.”
Sure, there are many potential designs that people have put up on the internet, but I have to say this is my favorite. Clean, crisp and with connections to the history of the airline.
A HUGE thanks to James Hackney (@jameshackney01) for taking the amazing 777-300ER photos of American’s 777-300ER at Paine Field and to Anthony Harding for letting me use his mock up.
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How can you not like the current livery. From the airline livery of the week you do, you seem to be a classics guy, and I’m pretty sure AA is one of the last remaining stripe liveries of any major carrier.
This is a good point. I like a classic livery, but I think the current AA livery hasn’t passed over to classic mode yet. It just looks outdated. Maybe in another 10-15 years it will look more classic to me.
But that darn red “A”, blue bird and second “A” has bothered me since I was a kid. I always felt that bird should be white.
David
I like the aluminum livery, it shines beautifully unlike any other livery during the “golden hour” of photography.
That is almost cheating. Your most recent AA MD-80 photo is awesome 🙂
http://www.flickr.com/photos/redlegsfan21/8117631959/in/photostream
David
It will certainly be a change after seeing the current livery for so long!
The AA logo is one of the few that has (like DL “Delta”) survived through the last century to endure as a respected image and brand. I would hope they keep the AA and Eagle combo in some form, but, certainly encourage some creativity to take us forward remainder of this centurty. The Pan Am meatball logo still crops up in Univ Marketing tests as one of the most recognizable logos in the world. That commands respect for what was created, and the affection and emotion that we all feel in blog discussions like this!
I am sure the eagle will survive. I would be upset if it didn’t.
David
It’ll be interesting to see how this livery pans out. I’m looking forward to it. I secretly wish AA would introduce a new retrojet orange lightning bolt and silver/white livery on their first 787.
I did some googling in regards to renderings….and this is the closest I found to what we see in this article. I see to much Qatar in this one though.
http://anthony-harding.com/?p=156
“Too much Qatar”. Agreed!! First thing I thought when when my computer finished refreshing the screen.
Here’s to hoping it’ll be final painted at KPDX!!! Maybe us local guys might be able to catch it on it’s first flight after final paint toward KPAE!!
Which leads me to question… Where else do they paint the 777?? I know Boeing has two paint hangers at KPDX that only paint 777’s currently. But where else if anywhere else?? But with it already painted it’s base colors, could American be painting it at DFW in their own paint facility??
I agree with Shane, the lightning bolt has been AA’s best livery.
About a year ago, the I was asked to participate in a survey through work about American Airlines and what elements best represented the brand. It was pretty clear AA was looking to overall their image, which I think many of us will welcome, as it has become stale compared to more forward branded airlines like Delta and Virgin America. I don’t remember everything on the survey but the current silver livery was included, the current AA logo with the eagle was another, as was the Admirals Club ‘5 star’ logo surrounded by a circle.
http://anthony-harding.com/?p=156
Check it out!!! New livery for AA.
I find the amateurish rebranding effort being spammed in the comments to be a misguided and oversimplified rebranding of AA, that doesn’t seem to take the best assets of the current brand at all. Admirable effort I might add though!
I wouldn’t necessarily call the rendering postings in the comments(only twice btw) to be called “spamming”. It’s the closest rendering out there to what we actually see in the photos of the actual craft.
But do agree with your thoughts. The rendering I first posted and now David updated into the blog post, is just too….just too…too much of a mash up of Delta-like and Qatar-like ideas and way too bland in my opinion. It does look good though. I’d love to see more red incorporated into it. Still doesn’t change the fact I will never fly with them based on past experiences directly and indirectly.
I am quite impressed with Anthony’s effort at a livery mock up. If you check out his website, it goes beyond just a design, but careful thinking behind the meaning. I am glad that people shared the links and when I reached out to Anthony, he was willing to let me share on my main story.
I have seen quite a few ideas for a new AA livery, but I think this one is the best and closest matches what we know to date.
David
Huge terminal renovation currently underway at DFW and new livery/signage is definitely part of the “re-birth” image repair from the bankruptcy. Contractors and vendors have NDA’s to keep it hidden as long as possible. Looking forward to it!
Page 8 of this document, https://www.dfwairport.com/cs/groups/public/documents/webasset/p1_062559.pdf , shows big changes at American eagle’s terminal.
It’s still like putting lipstick on a pig. They will still be one of the worst airlines on the planet.
I love the AA “Retrojet” 737 with the classic astrojet livery.
There is also a B757 Retrojet. It is based upon the orange livery of the Dc-3.
A new livery for American is long over due. I cant wait to see them assume their new beauty.
It reminds me a liitle of the uniteds grey military livery
But united did it better
I completly agree, i find the AA curent livery to be outdated and not nice at all, not a fan of the aluminium, i really hope they change livery with the new aircrafts
Anthony Harding’s livery kinda looks like the Aeromexico livery
I think the old livery is a classic and there is nothing wrong with it. why it the old one is beautiful and you always now its AA. Keep the livery because the new one looks to common in this day and age. And with it being stripes and aluminium it is the best livery out there now. :)leave it alone AA why fix something what is not broken.
No new pictures about the livery on the B773 yet?
NO SORRY, THAT LOOK IS TO…EWW. I LIKE HOW THE PLANES LOOK NOW THERE’S NO PROBLEM WITH IT AND THE IRONY IS THERE’S A PROBLEM WITH PAINTING THE PLANES IT PUTS WAIT ON THEM, AND WITH THE WAIT OF THE PAINT THE PLANES WILL WEIGH MORE ODDS OF AN ACCIDENT WILL INCREASE,
This suggested livery looks more like Aeroflot´s with their Mica finishing !
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I like the new livery… and I don’t care for Anthony Harding’s rendition, it looks like a copy of Mexicana in my opinion.
I love the paint of Anthony Harding above. Looks great!
I love Anthony’s livery. I think I like it better than the party tail they currently have. While I usually love bright bold colors, the party tail looks too busy and doesn’t really look like a flag. My only suggestion for Anthony’s livery would be to keep the original Massimo eagle which is just so beautiful and so representative of American Airlines. Maybe red and blue stripes on the bottom instead of white?? I think AA threw out the baby with the bath water when they modernized and got rid of the Massimo logo. They could have done major updates but still kept the original logo as did United and Delta.