There are a lot of you out there that aren’t too keen on United’s new combined livery with Continental. The more I keep seeing the new livery in photos the more I seem to like it. Not that long ago, I was able to view the new United livery in person at Boeing Field and I have to say it isn’t that bad. Although the new livery is growing on me, it can’t beat some of United’s liveries from the past. I have been hoping that United would be having a retro-livery themed plane and good news; they will.
I have been asking to see the Saul Bass United livery to make a comeback, but after viewing some of their other liveries on a Boeing 757, I am not too sure anymore. We already know what the Saul Bass United livery looks like on a Boeing 757, but we don’t know what the others would look like.
United employees are able to vote until the first week of December. The Boeing 757 will remain in the retro livery until it goes into paint again.
UPDATE (12/13/10): The winner has been announced, see which retro United livery won.
VOTE: Which would you choose? (If you are reading this from the Seattle PI, click here to vote directly on the blog)
[poll id=”3″]
1) Notice the three separate words for "United Air Lines." This livery is from the Boeing 247
2) This livery was used in DC-4's when the name was just "United."
3) United mainliner design from the 1950's and 60's.
4) From the 1970's, the updated Friend Ship United livery.
5) In 1974 the United Tulip was born with the Saul Bass livery.
United Airlines Boeing 757 (N542UA) with special Oprah livery. Click for Larger.
Man, United Airlines and their new livery has made a lot of blogs on here recently. Oprah has been making pretty good airline news as well. She gave her entire audience a trip down to Australia with Qantas and now she has her name on a United Airlines Boeing 757.
When I first received the press release all I could do was laugh, but okay I guess it makes sense. United is based out of Chicago and so is Oprah. But doesn’t Oprah always say “travel accommodations provided by… American Airlines?” I dunno, I haven’t watched it in years. Anyhow, United wants to help celebrate Oprah’s final season by creating a special livery.
Not only does the exterior have Oprah stuff, but the interior does too. On the inaugural flight, passengers had a special video message from Oprah and one lucky passenger won enough United Mileage Plus miles for a trip around the world. Everyone else got a special fleece blanket.
If you weren’t on the first flight, don’t worry. United is having a contest and giving away a million miles per month through May 2011, which is when the special Oprah livery will be taken off the aircraft.
MORE:
* Time lapse video of the Boeing 757 being painted
* Video of Oprah’s welcome message
Videos and Image from United Airlines
The photoshopped United Airlines Boeing 747-400 in new livery on the left and original photo on the right. Click for larger version.
So, the photo of the Boeing 747-400 in the new United livery I posted last week is a fake. I apologize, since I didn’t know it when I posted it, but does it matter? It is still cool looking. You awesome airline geeks realized it because the engines were wrong. United flies Pratt and Whitney engines and these engines are GE. Nice catch! The creator of the image, Mark B, wrote to me and confirmed that he did in fact used a photo of an Air Canada Boeing 747-400 to make his photo. He also shared two others of an Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner that I wanted to share as well.
What a United Airline Airbus A380 might look like in the new United Livery. Click for larger version.
Even though I am not in love with the new United livery, I really like it on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Click for larger version.
Boeing 747: Bailey
Airbus A380: FishAir
Boeing 787: Boeing
The group of Aviation Geek Fest geeks in front of a GE90 engine on a brand new Boeing 777. Photo by Boeing.
Last Saturday we had our second annual Aviation Geek Fest hosted at the Future of Flight. 50 aviation lovers showed up to experience something special.
The event started off with a presentation on Boeing’s history from their historian, Mike Lombardi (photo). Mike is such a knowledgeable guy with a true passion for history and aviation. It was great learning more about Boeing’s history and hearing aviation geeks chime in with stories of their own. The cool part was when the geeks were able to ask questions of Mike and test his historical skills. I am guessing that Mike easily made 50 new friends on Saturday.
After getting pumped up, it was time to move to the Boeing auditorium for a short video on Boeing and their airplanes (photo). Then it was on to a Boeing bus to check out the factory (photo). Everyday Boeing offers tours of their factory, but this one was different — we got to walk on the factory floor with the planes versus seeing them from the balcony.
That's me in front of my new favorite plane, the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental at the Boeing Factory. Click for larger.
I was excited since I have never had this experience. Before we could go gazing at all the beautiful new aircraft, we had to put on safety glasses and get a safety briefing (photo). There were a lot of things for us to trip on and it would easy to become distracted.
Then the real fun started. We were able to get close and personal with some Boeing 777’s, 787’s and of course the brand new Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental. Normally no cameras are allowed on the factory tour, but Boeing was pulling out all the stops. David Reese, who works for Boeing, agreed to take photos of our VIP factory tour that we would be allowed to use. This was great since we had to give up all our electronic devices, which is not easy to do. Many of us aviation geeks are also technology geeks and not being able to take photos or Tweet is difficult. However, it was nice to just enjoy the experience and not worry about taking all the right photos.
I have been on the tarmac close to airplanes before, but this was different. There was something special being so close to Boeing aircraft that have never flown before. They were clean, fresh, air virgins that were getting ready to take flight.
Getting close and personal to a new Boeing 747-8 Freighter on the Boeing factory floor. Click for larger.
Although seeing some Boeing 787’s up close from the factory floor was pretty sweet, my favorite part of the tour was the new Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental. The 747-8 Freighter has already taken flight, but this is the first Intercontinental and it looked good… it looked damn good.
Before our tour, I wondered if seeing that extended upper deck would be obvious in person and it very much is. No one should have trouble telling the difference between the Boeing 747-400 and the 747-8I.
After checking out the new 747, we were able to check out a Boeing 777 still in two large pieces (photo). It was surreal to take a close look at a flight deck with almost no one in it. We also got to take a look at the Boeing 787 Dreamliner static test bed, which has been putting the 787 to the test for quite some time now (photo).
It was definitely hard to get everyone back on the bus. I am sure most of us could have stayed for hours, maybe even forever. Even though it was time to head back to the Future of Flight we had one last Boeing treat — a drive down the flight line. We got a close look at a bunch of Boeing 787’s, 777’s and 747-8F (photo).
When we arrived back to the Future of Flight, we had the opportunity to check out a demonstration by Laser Motive who have created a way to send a power charge through a laser. They had a helicopter that was flying based on the charge from the laser. It was nice sitting down to some pizza and beer and talk with them about how this technology can be used in the future.
It was very nice seeing the planes, but even better being able to talk about aviation with fellow geeks. I can’t wait until next year!
62 photos from Boeing, me and others of Aviation Geek Fest 2010 and a few more from Shawn Du Lac
United Airlines Boeing 747-400 buzzes the Golden Gate Bridge. Photo by ~dgies via Flickr.
Until tomorrow, folks in the San Fransisco area are able to enjoy Fleet Week 2010. From their website: “The mission of San Francisco Fleet Week Association (SFFWA) is to honor the dedication to duty and sacrifices of the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces and to conduct and offer disaster preparedness training.”
To help celebrate, United Airlines flew one of their Boeing 747-400’s by the Golden Gate bridge. Pretty frek’n sweet, if you ask me. Over at The News Blog for Bay Area Travellers, they explained they have heard negative feedback about the fly over. Some say it is too similar to 9/11 and others are asking why a private airline is at a military celebration. Oh please.
First off, this is nothing like 9/11, it is a celebration with a bunch of different aircraft (including military) flying over the bay. If seeing a bunch of FA-18’s can fly by the bridge, why can’t a Boeing 747? Secondly, yes, United is not part of the military, but that doesn’t mean they can’t help to celebrate what the military does for our country.
Let’s just take this for what it is — pure eye candy. Oh what? You want more eye candy? Sure:
* Short video of the 747 flying over the bay
* Photo of the 747 flying over the bridge
* This photo makes the Boeing 747 look so small
* The United 747 flying over Alcatraz
Source: The B.A.T. via NYCAviation Image: ~dgies
