The magnificient flying paintings..

Guess whats in store for aviation nuts in India? well, here goes.. First off, the new liveries. Indian Airlines shortened itself to 'Indian' and adopted a new livery some months ago, and everyone else seems to be following suit. Air India's new livery has appeared on the net after its new 777-200 LR took to the skies for test flights. They haven't gone and ruined it like the last time with the sun livery, this time it is rather cool. The warm beige-ish colour and the stylized archer logo in gold is pretty good, and has class. And the famed window detail is still there, albeit smaller.

By contrast, Indian seems to have done an attention grabbing bid. The livery is stark, pretty much an LCC sort of thing. But the saving grace is the wheel graphic in deep blue, contrasting nicely with the loud orange. Besides the engine nacelles, like in AI, are a nice touch. But I got fooled once, thinking i was going to board one of their brand new 320s. Only on the airstairs did I notice that my flight had double bogey landing gears.. seen only on the oldest of Indian's 320s. Buggers had started repainting them already. The older ones have blotchy white paint, in case you want to tell the difference.


Jet is what I hate though. I've always had a thing against them for having a livery too close to that of Singapore. And when they finally changed, they didnt go the whole hog. Just a half hearted introduction of yellow to the front of the fuselage. I would've ranted more were it not for the sexy yellow uniforms they have given their cabin crew. That and the fact that they have ordered some 330s along with their 777s and 787s. And again, its not that the aircraft dont look cool, its just that i would have loved some more change. Of course, to each his own.

The one that takes the cake, though, is Air India Express. Its nothing short of revolutionary. Like the first AI 747s with the palace in the sky livery that was intricate and out-of-the-world for that era. The photographic stickers on the tail depicting bits of Indian culture, from art to dance to architecture, is simply brilliant. Each aircraft has a different picture on either side of the tail, each more intricate than the next in detail. It remains to be seen how AIX can manage maintenance on these, but for the moment I'm willing to put my money on these beauties for the title of 'most beautiful 737s in the skies' today.