Tuesday, October 28, 2008

World's Ugliest Paint

As you marvel at the selection and placement of colours on this commercially-operated airplane, consider not only the individual and combined awfulness of the turquoise and orange, along with the bizarre block placement of the colours on nacelles, stabilizer and rudder. Stop to think that someone had to choose those colours. Someone had to decide that would be a good colour scheme. There might even have been a meeting, at which multiple people nodded in assent. Someone had to go out and buy that paint. And someone had to actually apply it. Possibly in multiple coats. This airplane represents a serious breakdown in CRM. Someone should have stepped in and called a stop to this decision.

I spoke to the crew, but it was hard to understand them, as they had paper bags over their heads.

17 comments:

Tina Marie said...

You only say that because you never met the CheckerBird:

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/NealHoward/Checkerbird.jpg

Neal's sold the plane, but when he first got it, his wife actually sewed him curtains to match the paint job.

I've seen another variation on this at a drop zone once - same 1-ft-wide checks, only in pink and green. No pictures of that, though.

Anonymous said...

I loved the "I spoke to the crew, but it was hard to understand them, as they had paper bags over their heads." :-)

It's not that uggly to me. I've seen worse.

Buzzoff said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Buzzoff said...

Gotcha beat:


http://www.airliners.net/photo/Short-SC-7-3M-400-Skyvan/1414901/L/

Anonymous said...

In hte 1980's one of the largest airlines on the planet painted their airplnes in colors not too different that that.

Anonymous said...

The paint scheme reminds me of those beater cars you see with fenders or doors, painted a completely different color.. because they recently were on a completely different chassis. You don't suppose this is a recent repair job?

And, wow, yes buzzoff that is one way to make a Shorts stand out. Looks like they parked it in a graffiti tagging neighborhood.

Reminds me of a Shorts joke, involving a white one with a tan stripe on each side. But I won't include it here, in case the Skyvan is Aviatrix' ride.

Lord Hutton said...

Colour scheme reminds me of Stagecoach trains early liveries. Much improved since those early days

Aviatrix said...

I think the Checkerbird is actually kind of jazzy. It makes sense as an overall scheme.

And the Shorts, wow. It's a professional and very skilled design and application of paint, but after I looked at it for a while I understood that "nauseating" with respect to a paint job wasn't necessarily wholly metaphorical. I really do think I could make myself sick if I looked at it for long enough.

Years ago, a friend and I tried to come up with the weirdest possible colour scheme, for the purpose of indicating aircraft colours on a flight plan. We settled on burgundy with yellow happy faces.

amulbunny's random thoughts said...

This one is kinda cute too.....

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=557280&nseq=8

Anonymous said...

i like the factory drab olive green base coat that fancy new turbine planes get before they get painted.

Anonymous said...

LoL. This post made me laugh...especially "stop to think that someone had to choose those colours" - not that a paint job would deter me from using an airline but it does make for a good laugh. I'm a little more concerned with what's under the hood. But at least with schools like Centennial College in Toronto, which has an aviation program, we know we've got experienced technicians taking care of such things. Thanks for the great post, and the laugh.

Anonymous said...

As far as I am concerned, there is no ugly airplane.

Anonymous said...

Bags on their heads barfing or huffing?

Aviatrix said...

Paper bags over their heads. You know, bag, eyeholes: hide your identity. Like a lame Hallowe'en costume.

Anonymous said...

Is that YZH?

Aviatrix said...

Pretty sure it was, anonymous. Next camera I get will have a GPS in it, so I can keep track!

Anonymous said...

Phil, that olive green base coat is etch primer used to prepare the aluminium for painting.