I'm happy to see AA continuing this. I remember the retro 757 (1959 livery) that didn't seem to last very long for some reason. I flew it in both the retro version and later in the red-white-blue. (It flew the same!) The first time I stepped onboard the retro and headed for the cockpit, I thought to myself "what if this thing is filled with nothing but vintage 1959 instruments and I'm on some reality show?" Fortunately, that wasn't the case. "Idlewild, This is American One, Over", wearing my headset over my hat, of course, just what was done in the old publicity photos.
Nope, thank you Rolls Royce. Now we think of an MD80 as noisy. Nice try, Pratt and Whitney, on those organ pipe noise suppressors. The good old 707 was never quiet and I loved it (too young to have actually flown it, though).
oh wow...I remember seeing that livery in photos..it was so classy and and different..the next group of aircraft aa had still used the shiny siver body (fuel saving design)but changed the basic eagle logo and the " lightening" striping to straight red and blue..still classy and fuel saving..i was not impressed when the livery changed because of the merger a couple of years ago..i guess it was done to combine the us airways color scheme with aa..they did poll the employees over a period of time to get their suggestions,but not the customers,nor the "old" aa'ers to my knowledge..oh well..by the way, I remember staying at the hyatt at dfw right after braniff went into dissolution,and out of my window you could see rows and rows of those brightly colored aircraft parked wing to wing..now that was sad!!
Actually, AA had been using a nearly paint-free livery from the 1930s, with its venerable orange lightning bolt motif lasting until the late 60s, and after that there was still just the red, white and blue "cheat line" running the length of the fuselage.
Subsequent to that, the Airbus fleet's particular aluminum alloy composition required more body paint, but even then, the color chosen was a silvery gray, approximating the bare aluminum look of the past. With the merger makeover,it appears the intent was the same, but the tail design is a complete abomination, in my opinion. I'd take the retro look referenced in the article, lightning bolt and all, any day.
I always assumed it would never grow on me, and that seems to still be the case. It's grown on me a little, so much so that when I'm AA hubs and there's the lone polished aluminum 737 or MD80 (or even rarer, an Eagle RJ in old livery) it looks...odd. The only thing I like about the new livery is the tail, I think the flag looks neat. But the flat grey is just so...blah.
Just flew on the PSA bird from ALB to CLT. Was talking to the crew to see what else was on the way, nothing further back then Alleghany on the US Air side,. I was sort of hoping for a black and gold Mohawk
JIM GARRITY..YOU AND ME BOTH!i remember pan am,western,braniff,allegheny,twa,hughes air west (with the bright yellow bodied aircraft),texas international with the star on the body,the old united,the old continental( proud bird with the golden tail), and a whole lot more..whats that they say about time flies when you are having fun!!!mergers and changes and bankruptcies have been a part of aviation life ,unfortunately, for a lot of years,and changes good or bad to the logos and livery of carriers is a part of it...