How well do you know airline liveries?
Alright, we had quite a few people via the site and social media take a stab at the 7th Ultimate Livery Challenge and I have to admit that it wasn’t easy. I don’t think I would have been able to get all of these, if I wasn’t the person making up the contest. But here are the correct answers with links to the full photos:
G’Day! Welcome to the new ForeignAirlineReporter.ca, your new source of all the airline and airliner news you could want, as long as it is not based in the USA. Under the leadership of the ’œForeign Core’ of the site previously known as AirlineReporter.com, and in conjunction with the governments of some foreign nations (who will remain secret for the moment), a hostile takeover has occurred that has changed the management of this website.
After a very productive six years of Founder David Parker Brown’s leadership, the AirlineReporter.com brand was ripe for the pickings. With a great following around the world, respected not only amongst #AvGeeks but the airlines themselves, AirlineReporter.com was at a stage in its life where it could be expanded much further into a worldwide powerhouse. Today’s takeover, lead by former AirlineReporter.com staffers Mal Muir (Australian), Bernie Leighton, & Howard Slutsken (both Canadian), was done to ensure that AirlineReporter’s growth was bigger and more in-line with today’s more global aviation market.
All Nippon Airways Boeing 767-300ER lands at YVR on Sunday afternoon – Photo: Leighton Matthews | Pacific Air Photo
ANA – All Nippon Airways’ first scheduled flight to Canada landed at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) on Sunday afternoon. The arrival of the Boeing 767-300ER from Tokyo International Airport – Haneda (HND) ushered in the option of a new airline and new destination airport for Tokyo-bound passengers who originate or connect in YVR.
Located on Tokyo Bay, Haneda airport is a short 15-minute train or monorail ride for passengers to connect to Tokyo’s extensive transit system. Haneda was relegated to domestic flights in the late 1970’s, when Narita International Airport (NRT) opened to serve international traffic. Although a new express train now serves distant Narita, many consider traveling between downtown Tokyo and NRT to be a time-consuming and expensive ordeal.
Looking to return HND to its previous status as Tokyo’s convenient gateway, a new International Terminal was opened in 2010. Initially, international flights were limited, and slot-restricted to middle-of-the-night arrivals, which wasn’t particularly appealing to passengers or airlines. Fortunately, HND opened up daytime slots in 2014, most beginning this week. ANA’s YVR-HND route is just one of many new international flights serving the airport.
BONUS: Touring Haneda Airport’s New International Terminal
AirlineReporter was invited to join in the inbound flight’s arrival festivities at YVR, and to fly to Haneda on the inaugural. As AR.com’s Vancouver-based correspondent, I was given this ’œplum’ assignment. But not without much jealousy coming from our staff in the Seattle area, including our illustrious Editor-in-Chief!
A Blue1 Boeing 717 in Manchester – Photo: Ken Fielding
Blue1 is based in Copenhagen and is owned by the SAS Group. Their fleet of nine Boeing 717s fly to destinations around Europe, but mostly within Finland.
BONUS: Video of Blue1 Boeing 717
They offer wet leases for other airlines, tour operators, and a variety of other long/short-term deals.
Blue1 also offers a pretty slick looking livery. It starts with a blue tail and swirls and gradients itself into lighter blue and purple hues before becoming white in the front. It goes against the boring European white liveries that have become more popular, and is quite a bit more exciting than its parent’s much more boring livery.
Connect with Blue1: Web | Twitter (@SAS) | Facebook (SAS)
LAM Ilyushin Il-62 – Photo: Colin Cooke / Flickr CC
In the Western world, when it comes to aircraft production, it is pretty much common that the aircraft designer is also the manufacturer of said aircraft. For example, in the United States, Boeing, Lockheed, and McDonnell Douglas were the three big manufacturers of civil aircraft through the 1990’s. All three of these companies employed many thousands of engineers designing every part of each aircraft family, and then would hand the design over to many thousand more factory workers who would build the aircraft at vast company-owned factories. In the former Soviet Union (USSR), things worked a little differently.
When one thinks of Soviet-era aircraft, one normally thinks of the very popular civil designs by Ilyushin and Tupolev. But what most do not realize is that these famous companies were not in the business of aircraft manufacturing. Within the Soviet Union, the aviation industry was governed by three main government organizations: the Ministry of Aviation Industry (МиниÑтерÑтво авиационной промышленноÑти, or MAP), the Ministry of Civil Aviation (МиниÑтерÑтво гражданÑкой авиации, or MGA), and the Ministry of Defense (МиниÑтерÑтво обороны, or MO).