Blue Tails

In an earlier post, I showed a bunch of airline paint schemes that featured predominantly red tails. This time, I'll show you some that feature blue tails. Much to my surprise, when I started selecting the shots for this posting, I found that there are probably more blue tailed paint schemes than red - not what I had thought would be the case. So many, in fact, that this will be part one, with another installment to follow. I'll focus mainly on airlines in this segment.

A Singapore A340-500 just about to touch down on runway 24 Right.

This airplane has been in the air since yesterday to get here.

A couple of blue tails: An Aeroflot 767-300 (yes, Aeroflot operates Boeings!) taxis past a Lufthansa 747-400. The flight to Moscow goes over the polar ice cap.

Going through my collection, I found a number of shots of airlines that I realized aren't operating here anymore. You don't really notice that they're gone during the day-to-day operations; it's more a recognition that 'You know, I haven't seen so-and-so lately.' This Varig cargo (from Brazil, I think) DC-10 is one of those; we also used to have Varig passenger service in MD-11's. Now Korean (!) flies that route.

Here's an odd-ball: A 747SP, seen here in Saudi colors. The 747SP was Boeing's first attempt at a really long range airliner in the 1980's. It has since been surpassed by the 747-400 and the 777, along with the Airbus 330 and 340.

A Lan Chile 767-300 in the flare on runway 24 Right. Lan Peru aircraft have the exact same paint scheme; as far as I know, the only way to tell them apart is their radio callsigns.

A Mexicana A320, with Southwest's NBA special behind. Mexicana's paint scheme used to be green - same scheme, just green. Now it's dark blue.

This shot shows another no-longer-here carrier: an Aviacsa 737-200 (noisy and smoky - look at those skinny nacelles), with a WestJet (Canadian, and still here) 737 next to go.

A Polar Air Cargo 747 taxis by as a Cathay Pacific 747 rotates. These are both 400-series aircraft; the cargo version retains the short hump.

Another cargo 747-400

This one's a little special in that it's rarely seen moving during the day:
An Air Transport (cargo) DC-8 takes the runway for departure.

Another cargo 747-400, but this one's a conversion. World also operates MD-11's.

I've just recently started seeing this Spirit paint scheme;
it's a bit more colorful than their other one, seen below with an Air Tahiti Airbus
340-300 (the bane of LA departure controllers - what a dog!)

A Skywest CRJ-700 in the new United scheme takes the runway, with an Allegiant MD-80 (-83 or -88, I don't remember which) waiting its turn. Allegiant is not a regular operator here; I was fortunate to catch this shot. This is also a good comparison of the size of the CRJ versus the MD-80; there are shorter versions of each (CRJ-200 and the MD-87/B717)

I couldn't decide which of these shots to use, so you get both. United's old scheme and Continental both have a lot of blue on the tails.

Another new one: I've just started seeing this Sun Country scheme; not as colorful as their other (previous?) one, which features a multi-shade blue fuselage and orange tail.

A USAir special state scheme on this Airbus 319; before America West merged with USAir, this paint scheme was seen on an America West 757.

Big and bigger: A New Zealand 767-300 in front of a China Southern 777-200.

AeroMexico has started painting their new aircraft; this 737 still has the bare skin with blue trim.

Here are a pair of Embraer ERJ's at terminal 5: In the foreground, a Delta Connection 145 (operated by ExpressJet) showing Delta's latest paint scheme; and behind, a Costera 135 (AeroMexico regional partner). Costera also operates Saab-Fairchild 340's into LAX.