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BY DEBBY ARKELL
| Above: In some
cases, it's an artist's vision that is translated by a series of experts
into a unique livery. Qantas commissioned Balarinji, a design studio
in Sydney, and collaborated with a celebrated Uluru-based indigenous
artist, Rene Kulitja, to do just that for a series of art planes in
their fleet. Balarinji translated the artist's ideas and passed them
along to Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The 737-800 art plane is dubbed
Yananyi Dreaming, meaning going traveling. |
People make impressions with their outward
appearances, and commercial airline carriers are no different. If it catches
your eye, you just might be tempted to catch the next flight.
Just about every model of Boeing airplane currently
in production has sported a unique livery in recent years. From U.S. carriers
such as Southwest Airlines and American Airlines to international customers
All Nippon Airways and Qantas, airlines sometimes opt for a distinctive,
customized livery. Even the Boeing house livery has seen a few innovative
touches lately.
When customers call for custom liveries, Boeing
Commercial Airplanes painters respond by painting jets with designers'
finesse. Painting a commercial jet involves a process as detailed as the
livery to be applied, though in general the steps have remained fairly
constant over the years.
"Commercial airplane skin panels arrive at Boeing
covered with a temporary protective coating to protect the metal from
damage or corrosion during the manufacturing and assembly processes,"
said Bill Dill, decorative paint manager in Commercial Airplanes' Everett,
Wash., factory. "This is where the term 'green airplane' comes from; it
references the green protective coating and implies that the product is
unfinished, awaiting our handiwork."
Paint shop employees first use a hand-sander on
a completed airplane's previously primed surfaces, then tackle the green
skins. They then mask off areas that need protecting, such as landing
gear and engines, and apply detergent to the airplane to remove the coating.
Next they wash the aircraft with a fire hose spraying water heated to
100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 C) to remove the green color. This leaves the
natural, silver-colored aluminum skins.
Once the jet is clean, painters sand or abrade
the surface of the panels to ensure the primer coat adheres to the metal.
They apply primer and then mask off areas of the jet and paint it in various
stages, depending on the process for each customer's livery. They apply
hand-detailing or decals last, prior to preparing the plane for delivery
to the customer. The time needed to complete a paint job depends on the
size of the airplane and the complexity of the livery. For example, while
painting a typical livery on a 737 requires two to three days on a two-shift
operation, the Qantas design required six days on a two-shift operation.
Regardless of whether the work is a carrier's
standard livery replicated precisely on every model in a fleet, or a livery
based on a color drawing from a 12-year-old girl in Japan, the talented
craftsmen and women in Boeing Commercial Airplanes paint shops finish
Boeing airplanes with exacting care.
debra.j.arkell@boeing.com
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