BA to fly the Flag!

[HalesAndPace]

At last, no more multi-coloured, multi-ethic, multi-vomit tails for BA!! It seems that the “Chatham Union Jack” (as already in use on Concorde) will replace the embarrassing tail fin colour scheme. Apparently, the make-over will also extend to a re-design of everything, with the “world images” being removed from cards, boarding passes, tickets, etc, etc. Rodders wants BA to be as symbolic of Britain as BMW is of Germany – what a pity that Uncle Bob spent all that money 4 years ago!!

Shame really, it will stop a lot of very funny calls on the R/T.

[Chocks Wahay]

Just curious - am I the ONLY person in the place who actually liked the BA tail fins?

[Brakes...beer]

More hot news...Queen Victoria dies.

'Buckingham Palace reported just over a century ago that Her Majesty passed away in her sleep after...'

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I agree they were appalling, but I wish they'd go back to the dark blue and the crest. The wavy flag is still a bit too Cool Britannia for my liking.

[Biggles Flies Undone]

YUP :)

[Curious Pax]

I think the change is that they are going to proactively repaint the aircraft that currently have the world image schemes, rather than just let them fade out whenever their next repaint is due. BA also still make a lot of use of the world images on things like boarding passes and inflight meals, which also sounds as if it will stop. I had also heard a rumour that the 'Chatham Historic Dockyard' scheme (ie the new scheme) would also be modified - anyone shed any light on that?

[160to4DME]

Well I for one actually liked some of those fins, but must admit some of 'em look decidedly tatty once they get a little dirty.

And I suppose it means the end to some of the on air quips....

"Speedbird, nice to see you've brought your travel rug"

"Yuck, it looks like smudged pizza"

"Give way to the rose between 2 thorns"

"Give way to the Bodyform tail" (wings and fins) :)

"We'll follow the one with the order for chow mein on the tail"

:) :) :) :) :) :)

[Wycombe]

I overheard this on the tower frequency at KSFO a few years ago:

Tower: Speedbird xxx, what is that on your tail?

Speedbird: An Indian rug, apparently

Tower: Hmmm, vacate left, ground .8!

[Spoonbill]

http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/tongue.gifI wonder if BA asked it's customers, both before the introduction of this carbunkle of a livery, and now, if they really give a toss what colour is on the side of the aircraft.
After all, the majority of passengers see very little of the exterior of the aircraft when embarking and disembarking, the exception being the BA franchise airlines, (an insult to a Twotter putting all that seaweed on the side).
Still, I suppose it justifies a salary in marketing and graphic design. ;)

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It wasn't me.

[Algy]

Curious Pax..."Aircraft will be repainted during their normal paint cycle": BA News today.

[hairy_kiwi]

Just another expensive graphic design competition. If they take this long to chose a paint scheme, it makes you appreciate how much money is wasted making other more important decisions... :)

[Thunderbug]

Don't despair guys - we can all start taking the mick out of bmi's attempt at cool Britannia. It makes some of BA's efforts look tasteful.

And as for dropping the word "British" - Scandalous!

[Steepclimb]

BA seems to be hamstrung by having to be the 'Flag Carrier' all the time. The ethnic tails were an attempt to put a bit of colour on the fleet, after all they are selling to a world audience.

The predominantly white/grey with a splash of red and blue is dull, dull dull. You can do a lot with the red white and blue. Lighten the blue and brighten the red and splash it about a bit more and you'll please almost everyone.

The current scheme has had it's day. it's positively Victorian, it's the 21st century for crying out loud!
Time to move on.

[This message has been edited by Steepclimb (edited 11 May 2001).]

[Avman]

Well, I liked the world image tail colours. Those of you who didn't are boring old farts. So there!

[FL390]

It did not cost £60 million as has been suggested, but approx £2-3 mil. This is because every aircraft is repainted wen it goes in for its major overhaul every five years! :)

I think some of the fins were absolutely dreadful, but some of them weren't that made and they gave a refreshing change of scenery!

[Deadleg]

Good news! Pity it took a foreigner to make British Airways 'British' again. As an Aussie I feel you Brits have lots to be proud of and you should stop hiding the fact that you are British, after all, would Lufthansa change their German image?(OK, so your cricket teams pretty ordinary but that's not important)

[Iz]

As a Brit, I think that when you call yourself THE WORLD'S FAVOURITE AIRLINE, it doesn't make sense to get rid of those beautiful world images. You may not like some of them but they were renditions of different cultures and countries.

Even if some looked funny or odd, I thought they were all very refreshing. Come on, Brits, get that stick out of your heinies and get with the times. :)

[Mooney]

Iz,

You may be interested to know that BA had MANY letters from Americans saying how sad they where to see the British culture being lost.

Personally- I think their new colours stink. Back to the crown "To Fly To Serve" please!!

[M.Mouse]

When I saw the pre - launch presentation I quite liked the fins. Brave and innovative idea. In reality with one or two exceptions I didn't think it looked so hot in the flesh. Had it been a raging success everybody would have been saying what a groundbreaking and excellent idea it all was. Full marks for trying but sadly it didn't work.

There are some equally awful paint schemes around though. How about the QANTAS ethnic paint scheme, a 747 is not really an ideal canvas for native art. Or the bmi Star Alliance scheme that unfortunately looks like a washing line.

You win some you lose some.

[LTN man]

BA should use the flag of St George on the tail of their aircraft as if you took away the franchise airlines that call themselves BA but aren’t BA would have hardly a presence north of the border apart from the London shuttles.

[ExSimGuy]

I thought the "graffiti" designs were awful

Now how about bringing back the SpeedBird :)

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What goes around . . .
. . often lands better!

[poshed]

The old tails were awful from my point of view,you try robbing one rudder for another a/c and getting the paint scheme to match

[Dan Winterland]

Couldn't agree more Ex Sim Guy. The BOAC speedbird was the coolest British livery ever. It looked best on a Super VC10 IMHO.

[whats_it_doing_now?]

Some of the tails looked ok, the english rose is pretty good, but i think it all lead to ba losing a bit of its corporate identity. some of the prints may be nice art in their own right, but they look crap on the side of an aeroplane. The chatham one is a bit boring though, and i think they should bring the crest back. the new speedbird logo is better than the old one as well. so there.

[Behind the Curtain]

Avman, Iz, Chocks...

I liked them too!

[Natterjack]

I believe the multi-coloured country-orientated tails were most attractive, and considerably better than the dull totally British tails which were used prior to the world tails.

The flag which appears on Concorde is also delightful, and will look equally stunning on BA's other aircraft.


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I spend most of my money on beer and women; the rest I just waste.

[FL390]

Deadleg...........I guess that you are an Aussie, and so you think your cricket team is wonderful, but who jus lost a Test match???? And who has just won 3 Test series in a row?

British Airways' 'motto' is not "The World's Favourite Airline" anymore, but "21st Century Air Travel." Just thought I'd cear that one up!

[dallas dude]

I was at Gatwick the other day and saw every gate, bar one on the end, lined up with the "new ", new tail. Looked great!

Ayling Bob (and others) missed the point of an image. The last thing to do is expect a Brit to know what being British represents to foreigners!

If you're travelling in some bustling part of the world (Cairo, Mexico City etc.) and as you near the airport you see the familiar tail, you can sense the little piece of Britain sitting there waiting to make you a decent cup of tea. An expectation of order, at least.

THAT'S the point of an image, surely (I don't mean just making good tea, of course).

Add the speedbird logo too, please.

dd

Several times over the years at DFW as BA's 2192 taxied out some wag would say to the effect "nice tail" to which a crewmember would reply "thank you".
Then, in my best Queen's english I'd say "one should see our ties!". I've often wondered how long it took the crew to convince each other they didn't say it.

[Sick Squid]

Whats-It-Doing-Now, you are never going to forgive me for what I am about to do..... but....

I too used to consider the English Rose tailplane marginally the best of a bad bunch. That is until someone pointed out to me that it looks like Bozo the Clown if you stare at it long enough.

Now go away and look at it again, and I bet you'll never forgive me 'cos eveytime you see your favourite tail, Bozo will appear! ;)

Good riddance to the lot of'em, I say. Complete waste of time and money and a hangover to the dark days of Bob Ayling.

Sick Squid

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I didn't do it, you didn't see me do it, you cant prove a thing!

[JRF]

Maybe they should go with the Irish Shamrock?

[Roobarb]

So what about all those ‘Yes Bob!’s who told us how we were soooh disloyal and soooh off message, how we were yesterday's people and how we didn’t understand modern marketing? You know, the Marketing Director from ‘Mars’ who insisted it was what our customers wanted because they’d done the research and their figures proved it was the right way ahead.

They should have consulted the greatest accumulation of aviation industry professionals with over 40 years in the business – the staff.
http://www.sausages.demon.co.uk/ian/classic/thumbs/roobarb.gif

[AJ]

I'm not a die-hard Brit, but the sight of such an aircraft pulling up, miles away from home, makes one feel a little proud...

CLICK TO SEE PICTURE (http://www.airliners.net/photos/big/0/00741.jpg)

She's in Montreal, in the photo above.

Cheers,
AJ

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Good Morning Buenos Aires

Edited to link to picture instead of showing it on screen here as it is too big for the page

[This message has been edited by Capt PPRuNe (edited 13 May 2001).]

[whats_it_doing_now?]

Thanks squid, i'll take a long look at it next time! Did you hear about the scottish tartan tail when they flew it into, i think, charlotte? Well if you look at the tail you will see the design produces a perfect white cross, smack bang in the middle of the tail. Obviously the locals in that little part of the deep south weren't amused, considering their civil rights history, and the significance that cross has with the kkk!
Aside from the jokes about the tails, I think what is far more disappointing is that they have renamed the aircraft along with the new paintjob. I thought a ship, once named, kept its name throughout its life. Surely aircraft should be the same?

[This message has been edited by whats_it_doing_now? (edited 12 May 2001).]

[Sick Squid]

WITD, it was Atlanta, and that Scottish-based tailplane became known as the "Georgia Cross."
Allegedly, of course, but hey! it's a good story.

As to naming BA aircraft... well, lets see, we've had rivers, we've done the castles,
we've hammered the cities into the ground. So what's left?

Prisons! That's the answer... prisons. Just imagine it.... "Dartmoor," "Carstairs," "Barlinnie,"
"Wormwood Scrubs," etc.

Ahhhh.....why our marketing department didn't catch on to that little gem, I will never know.
Can I have my £10,000 Brainwave award now, please? ;)

Prisons. Mark my words... one day.....

£6

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I didn't do it, you didn't see me do it, you cant prove a thing!



[This message has been edited by Sick Squid (edited 13 May 2001).]

[ExSimGuy]

Dan Winterland,

Aha! I was working at BA at the time the VCs went out of service. I thought that all the aircraft had been painted in "BA" colours by that time, and I thought that all of the 500 series went to the RAF.

I was at Duxford last weekend and saw an SVC-10 there - in BOAC colours, and it didn't look as if it had been recently repainted.

Anyone know the story on that one?

Isn't it a bummer when you show your son all those loverly aircraft you used to work on and fly on, and then reflect that they're in a museum http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/frown.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/frown.gif

AJ,

Nice picture - but does your monitor run at 1600x1200 res or more? I'm using 1024x768 and the pcture makes the page so wide it won't fit on my screen ! :P

[This message has been edited by ExSimGuy (edited 13 May 2001).]

[AJ]

ExSim,

800x600 on mine, I don't have the resources to crop it, I'm afraid.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Not a bad site for aircraft photos, I might add.

Cheers
AJ

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Good Morning Buenos Aires

[Pontius]

Roobarb,

Couldn't agree with you more!

I really like the Chatham Flag tail. I do not like the 'Ethnic' fins. More importantly; when we went to multi-everything colured aircraft we lost a VERY important marketing tool; Corporate Image. By returning to one type of tail we can at least be recognised as one airline rather than a complete shambles (waits for standard replies from non-BAers :)).

I'm delighted we are going to the 'New' tail design and the sooner the better. What does annoy me is the comments in BA News and from the to&*$rs who mucked it all up originally who are now trying to blow smoke up my arse (to coin an American euphamism) and say that the Ethnic mess was right at the time but now we've moved on. Why don't they just admit it. They screwed up and it's been far too long in being repaired.

Now; where can I get some decent new name badges?

Pontius

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You Ain't Seen Me - Right !!

[sky unlimited]

I liked the multi-colour foreign tails of the BA aircrafts. But.... it's better to have a good-looking aircraft like BA (including the British Tail) than to have flying circus-planes like the www.easyjet.com (http://www.easyjet.com) or www.transavia.com (http://www.transavia.com) or www.stopba. (http://www.stopba.) com or the awfull ryanair commercial colours!!

[Lucifer]

It was Atlanta and it is true: it is a 763-ER which is banned from going there with the Tarten tail.

Couldn't agree with you more, Pontious.

[This message has been edited by Lucifer (edited 13 May 2001).]

[chiglet]

As the "ex" once said. "If they want to fly flags, fine.BUT, if the want to make a profit, they have to fly people".
Quite sensinle my ex.
Comments invited!

[Deadleg]

FL390, good to see there's some spirit left amongst the poms, after all, my kids are Brits! See you at the Test mate. Good luck!

[White Knight]

Deadleg - prepare to see the Ashes wing their way home to Lords - on a BA 744 with the Chatham tail of course..
However it's been down to an Aussie to sort out BA's image, and that is really a bit sad.

Anyway, the new scheme looks fantastic I think. It's about time we - as a nation - tried to start being proud again, and not try to hide our identity. (Bring back the blue/gold passports too)
The Chelsea Rose design on our company aircraft has long been referred to as the "gunshot wound" or the "red cabbage"...

[TravelMan]

I think it is a shame that BA are going to all one colour scheme again. It makes flying soooo boring. As a very frequent traveller, I quite liked flying on aircraft in different liveries. It made flying a bit more fun.

Flew nine sectors on QF recently...same logo, same menus, same amenity kits...nice but dull. To finally have some colour, and something different on each flight, now that was great! But, it doesn't seem to fit into the Brit personality...just walk down Oxford Street and see everyone dressed in blue and black. Not true of the Champs Elysees or central Milan!

Ayling missed a huge opportunity to express Art in a corporate context. These aircraft are individual works of art that have never been promoted as such...who remembers the DC-8s that were decorated by Alexander Calder?

By the by, BA did consult a lot of their frequent fliers on this project, and I know many of us were pleased to escape the grey/blue 80s Corporate image. At least Chatham Dockyard is crisp and bright. . .

[Deadleg]

White Knight, I think the Ashes have never left Lords; the MCC would never let us colonials keep them even if we did win them! Don't forget, you'll have to win the series to regain, we only have to draw to retain. Should be good though to see Aus play a Test Match over 5 days for a change!
On the subject of the aircraft, I fully agree! Why bother to put your staff in uniform but leave the aircraft looking like it's dress down day! Be proud of your nationality, I'm proud to be associated with it!

[tonyt]

the old dear in the wheelchair (britannia) is apparently the next victim of re-branding...

[Doors to Automatic]

I say FULL MARKS to Rod Eddington for restoring the union flag to its rightful position. The aircraft in this scheme look absolutely stunning; its just a shame it took a foreigner (not meant in any disrespectful way to Mr Eddington) to restore something which should never have been taken away.

It's also two fingers up at the PC a**eholes who are doing everything they can to drive this wonderful country into the ground.

WELL DONE MR EDDINGTON