There was a time when passenger airplanes wore more sophisticated dress then nowadays, when airlines try to stand out from the crowd by applying huge images, harsh tones, and giant letters to their fleets, often covering all the fuselage of the aircraft.
If we look back in time, we find elegant typography, minimalistic paint jobs, low-key colors, simple lines and dynamic curves, streamlined lightning bolts, remarkable yet discreet company or brand logos. The following selection of photos takes you back to the golden age of airliner liveries.
The second Concorde in factory livery, at the British Aircraft Corporation’s airfield at Filton, Bristol, 1971
Photo: Victor Drees/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A Cubana airliner (Bristol Britannia 318) at Jose Marti International Airport, Havana, Cuba, 1971
Photo: Beverley Reed/AP
Bulgarian Airlines Tu-134A in hangar, c1970.
Photo source: CPCP – Братерство. Мистецтво, Київ, 1972.
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An Alaska Airlines DC-3 on sea ice at Tigvariak Island, Alaska, 1949
Photo: Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygren/NOAA Corps.
Hungarian Airlines (Malév) TU-154 B-2 at Paris Orly International Airport, 1989
Photo: Kornél Umann/Fortepan
A KLM McDonnell Douglas DC-8 (and an Aeroflot Il-18 on the left), 1970
Photo: Éva Romák/Fortepan
Aerolineas Argentinas Boeing 737, 1968
Photo: Éva Romák/Fortepan
This Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-114 looks gorgeous even in black and white (1961)
Photo: Fortepan
Malév Bombardier Q400 in a 65th anniversary painting (2011)
Photo: Malév
…and the same paint scheme on an Il-18, from 1972
Photo: Lars Söderström/Wikimedia Commons
A Cubana de Aviación Douglas DC-3 , 1965
Photo source: Flieger-Jahrbuch 1965, Transpress Web Verlag für Verkehrswesen, Berlin
Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727, c1970
Photo: SDASM
Tenneco BAC 1-11, c1970
Photo: SDASM
United Airlines Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, c1980
Photo: SDASM
Pan Am Boeing 747SP, c1978
Photo: SDASM
Air Canada Boeing 727, c1974
Photo: SDASM
Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 737, c1980
Photo: SDASM
Aerovias Guest Lockheed L-1049G “Super Constellation”, c1955
Photo: SDASM
Lufthansa Lockheed L-1649A “Super Star” Constellation, c1958
Photo: Lufthansa
British Midland Douglas DC-9, c1979
Photo: SDASM
Eastern Douglas DC-10, c1989
Photo: SDASM
Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-86
Photo: SDASM
Delta Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-11, 1997
Photo: SDASM
Lufthansa Douglas DC-10, c1980
Photo: SDASM
American Overseas Airlines Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, c1949
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Hungarian Airlines (Malév) Lisunov Li-2 HA-LIX from the Fifties restored to airworthy condition in 2001
Photo: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo
Air Atlantique Douglas DC-6AC, c1987
Photo: Ken Fielding/Wikimedia Commons
Martin’s Air Charter Douglas DC-3, c1958
Photo: Ken Fielding/Wikimedia Commons
Top photo: Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 (SDASM)