Most commercial jets sport standard airline branding, but occasionally we see a truly quirky design that stands out from the crowd. Here are some of the most creative aircraft exteriors in the world of aviation.
The most creative jet exterior designs
Commercial aircraft usually sport standard airline branding and colours, but there have been rare occasions when they’ve sported creative exterior designs to launch movies, celebrate national icons or promote tourism.
Our Charter Concepts team specialises in arranging bespoke liveries for group charters, along with other touches like branded check-in desks, boarding passes and private lounges. Including our landmark Iron Maiden charter - where our concept services were put to the test - here are some of the quirkiest aircraft exteriors in the world of aviation.
Iron Maiden’s Ed Force One
Iconic English heavy metal band Iron Maiden are known for travelling in style. During their 2016-17 Book of Souls world tour, they flew in a Boeing B747 that was specially customised by Air Charter Service’s Charter Concepts team.
The aircraft’s exterior featured the band’s name, along with mascot Eddie and a list of 50 shows on the tour. Nicknamed “Ed Force One” after the mascot, the B747 drew crowds with its eye-catching livery and was just as lavish inside, with cabin seating reconfigured to accommodate the band and space for 22 tonnes of tour equipment.
Click here to read the full story behind this charter.
Air New Zealand’s All Blacks and movie-themed planes
The All Blacks’ official sponsor, Air New Zealand, operates a Boeing 777-300 Dreamliner that’s been painted completely black in homage to the national rugby union team. The striking aircraft also features a native silver fern and a Maori Koru logo.
New Zealand is also famous as the setting of fantasy movie trilogies Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Air New Zealand celebrated the films by branding itself the Official Airline of Middle Earth, adorning the sides of its planes with characters including Smaug the dragon and playing in-flight safety videos featuring actors from the movies.
China Eastern’s Toy Story aircraft
In 2018, China Eastern teamed up with Shanghai Disney Resort to decorate an Airbus A330 marking the launch of the theme park’s new Toy Story Land. Flying between Shanghai and Beijing, the aircraft’s themed livery featured two of the franchise’s most beloved stars, Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
Passengers were given special Toy Story boarding passes and could pose with their favourite characters in the terminal. The famous movies were then screened onboard the aircraft, while themed food trays, menus, headphones and seats were adorned with images of toys including Rex and Bullseye.
Icelandair’s Hekla Aurora
In 2015, Icelandair launched a Northern Lights-themed Boeing 757 to honour the natural phenomenon that attracts millions of tourists to Iceland each year.
Named Hekla Aurora (Hekla is a traditional Icelandic girl’s name and one of the country’s volcanoes, while Aurora is taken from the New Latin name for the Northern Lights), the aircraft’s ethereal green-and-blue livery is complemented by LED cabin mood lighting that mimics the dazzling spectacle.
Brussels Airlines’ Tintin aircraft
Brussels Airlines’ Rackham Airbus A320 commemorates one of Belgium’s national icons, Tintin, and his creator, renowned Belgian cartoonist Hergé.
The airline worked with the Hergé Foundation to transform the aircraft into the famous shark submarine from Red Rackham’s Treasure, with a unique exterior design featuring Tintin and his dog Snowy. The interior features murals from the comic album, while passengers can read the story for themselves during their flight.
Kulula’s Flying 101
South African carrier Kulula has been known to experiment with quirky paint designs on its Boeing 737-800s, such as a bright green “Flying 101” livery featuring tongue-in-cheek labels on the aircraft’s wing, engine, nose cone and tail.
There’s an arrow pointing out the “mile-high club initiation chamber”, as well as a graphic referring to the pilot as “Big Cheese”. In 2010, a moustache was added to celebrate Movember, which raises awareness of men’s health issues. Another of Kulula’s liveries mimics a packing label with a sign reading “This way up”.
ANA’s Star Wars planes
One of Japan’s most well-known airlines, All Nippon Airways (ANA), has released several Star Wars planes as part of a partnership with Disney. It started with an R2-D2 livery adorning a Boeing 787-9 for the 2015 release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Subsequent designs have featured the popular characters BB8 and C3P0 and the Star Wars theme continues inside each aircraft with character headrest covers, cups and napkins.
Turkish Airlines’ employee montage
In 2012, Turkish Airlines celebrated its workers by plastering photographs of 17,000 employees from around the world onto the exterior of a Boeing 737. The project took four months to finish and features staff from 191 flight destinations, with participants ranging from pilots to engineers, cabin crew and terminal operators. Margins between the photos were shaded to spell out the company’s motto, Globally Yours, over the montage.
Qatar Airways’ FC Barcelona livery
Qatar Airways was the official sponsor of FC Barcelona from 2013 until 2017 and the airline decorated a Boeing B777 to promote the partnership. The brightly-coloured design featured Barça’s distinctive red-and-blue flag draped across the aircraft’s fuselage, along with the club’s crest and the tagline “a team that unites the world”.
It took artists in Dublin, Ireland, a week to hand-paint the football-themed livery onto the B777, with clever airbrush shading used to create the illusion that the flag was moving as the plane took off.
Fancy travelling in your own personalised group or private jet charter? Contact us for a quote from our Charter Concepts team for bespoke aircraft exterior and interior designs.