I'm happy to say that last week's Plane Porn was very well-received! Thanks to everyone who checked it out. I received quite a few great submissions from several readers, and I'll be sharing some of them in the weeks to come. As a reminder, if you have aircraft photos you'd like to share, please send them my way to paul@jalopnik.com
This week, I've decided to feature airline liveries that aren't flying anymore. There are dozens of bygone airlines and some classic paint schemes that went along with some of them.
First up, (pictured at the top) Independence Air. Remember them? They were hardly around long enough to make any memories, only from 2004 to 2006. Also called FLYi, they were based at Washington Dulles (IAD). In 2005, FLYi had a student special, where for a one-time fee of $250, students could fly on any Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday from May 1 through August 31.
Another flash-in-the-pan airline was Skybus. It was based in Columbus, Ohio of all places. Not that Columbus is bad, just an odd place to base an airline. Skybus hauled passengers through the clouds from May 2007 to April 2008.
Skybus A319 by BriYYZ on Flickr, for Creative Commons Commercial Use
Next, we have a Northwest Airlines A319 in what avgeeks call the "Bowling Shoe" livery. It's not hard to figure out why, if you've ever worn rented shoes at the lanes.
After the Bowling Shoe, Northwest went with this pearl-silver livery that was just a half-step from plain boring white. I don't know about you, but NWA always made me think of the rap group from Compton. Northwest is now completely gone, having merged with Delta Air Lines.
Remember "Ted?" I didn't either, until I spent some time this weekend browsing my digital archives. Ted was an offshoot of United (see what they did there?) meant to compete with low-cost carrier Frontier at United's hub in Denver. Ted comprised a fleet of 57 Airbus A320s, and only flew from 2004 to 2009.
How about America West? They bought out by U.S. Airways, but kept the U.S. Airways name, as it had more brand recognition worldwide. Avgeeks jokingly called this one the Jurassic Park livery. The merger with U.S. Airways did not go smoothly, as unionized workforces battled to integrate seniority lists. Now, U.S. Airways is having the same issue as it merges into American Airlines.
Here's a better-looking America West livery. U.S. Airways has done a nice job at preserving their historic liveries on jets that are still flying.
And just for kicks, you probably remember U.S. Airways old livery.
This dated Delta livery was called "Wavy Gravy" or "Deltaflot," for its resemblance to Russia's Aeroflot on the tail. I never thought the engines matched the tail very well on this scheme either.
Here's one that disappeared not too long ago, ATA. The low-cost and charter airline was based in Indianapolis and flew from 1973 to 2008, when they ceased operations under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Their operating certificate and trademarks were bought by Southwest Airlines for the bargain sum of $7.5 million.
This is obviously not a full list here, but we'll explore more another time. Next week, I'll be devoting the whole post to great photos submitted by readers. Here's one as a sneak peak - a beautiful DC-3 shot by Jordan Witherspoon in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Until next time, happy flying!
All photos except for the Skybus A319 and Jordan's DC-3 were taken by the author, Paul Thompson.