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British Airways is celebrating its 100th year by painting a number of its aircraft in liveries used by the airline (or airlines that came together to form the current airline) in the past.
We already have a British Airways 747 flying the skies in full BOAC livery dating back to 1960s….
….and last week the airline announced that it would be repainting one of its Airbus A319 aircraft in the livery used by British European Airways between 1959 and 1968:
With British Airways due to unveil the BEA livery on an A319 with the registration G-EUPJ at some point this month (possibly any day now) we now have official confirmation of the third retro livery that the airline will release.
British Airways is in the process of repainting a Boeing 747 (reg. G-BNLY) in the ‘Landor’ livery used between 1984 and 1997.
Note: I’m not great when it comes to recognising aircraft but I think that the image above is a BA DC10 (in the Landor livery)….can anyone confirm if that’s correct?
Design features of the Landor Livery include the British Airways coat of arms with the motto To Fly. To Serve. on the tail fin, with a stylised section of the Union Flag.
The 747 which will ‘wear’ the Landor livery first entered service in 1993 (it’s the airline’s 2nd oldest 747) and so has already done a 4-year stint in these colors back when they formed the official livery of the airline. To celebrate this fact, G-BNLY is being renamed ‘City of Swansea’ which is the name the aircraft had when it originally sported the Landor livery in the 1990’s.
British Airways has said that the Landor-liveried 747 will return to Heathrow later this month and will continue to serve long-haul destinations in its original colors until it is retired in 2023.
Final Thoughts
This is the second livery I ever saw British Airways use and it was the livery the airline’s aircraft were painted in when I really started to travel around the world…so it brings back some fantastic memories.
I’m delighted that BA has decided to put its third retro livery on to a 747 as that’s where these liveries really belong – historic liveries look best on historic aircraft like the 747s and would look odd on a modern-day Dreamliner (IMO).
It will be interesting to see what other liveries BA resurrects for its centenary year – I have my fingers crossed for the ‘Negus’ livery with the red tail fin (the first BA livery I think I remember) – but, whatever comes next, it will still be great to see a bit of history back in the sky.
Any particular livery you’re hoping BA brings back to life?
That is a DC10 – BA never operated the MD11 and you can distinguish the DC10 from L1011 by the straight rear jet – the L1011’s rear jet goes down into the fuselage
Thanks for the info – can’t believe I got it right 🙂
Nice. You can still see a few of these on cargo routes. FedEx has some.
You would have thought that if BA are going to do a Negus livery retrojet, they’d unveil it before the Landor livery?
Love that they’re using heritage idents on the departure screens for flights operated by the retrojets when departing Heathrow.
The BOAC aircraft and BEA design look amazing. Really looking forward to seeing & hopefully getting to fly on the Landor B747 – this is the British Airways that we remember growing up and for us this will be the most exciting to see! Not long to go now.