N702ML From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 6 hours ago) and read 1603 times:
Hello all...sorry if this has already been addressed, but I have a question for the forum.
I have noticed pics of Eastern's 727-100s and I notice many white ones as well as many silver ones. The years of the pics don't seem to matter. I see all-white ones in the early 70s, through the 80s and 90s.
My question is...why is this? Yes I know some airlines keep their planes silver for cost-cutting measures and I know some "silver" planes are eventionally painted in a grey/white color scheme as parts are changed and there are too many shades of silver...
But why does Eastern seem to have white 727-100s and silver 727-100s from the 70s through the 90s?
Jpz1991 From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 70 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 1540 times:
The721's in white are from the early days. I'm not sure when, but they changed the whole fleet to silver, there may have been some lag time in the conversion in which case you'd see a combo of both white & silver
Alitalia744 From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 4670 posts, RR: 45 Reply 2, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 1531 times:
Originally the hockeystick was white on top. At some point, the fuselage was made silver - except the A300 fleet...
MakeMinesLAX From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 520 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 1507 times:
You'll see the same if you do a search for Eastern's "opposite", Western Airlines.
Other airlines which went through the same white-to-silver transformation are USAir and Aeromexico. United experimented with a half-way approach:
NWOrientDC10 From United States of America, joined Mar 2005, 1389 posts, RR: 4 Reply 5, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 1480 times:
I think AA had a (or a few) "white" a/c as well. I'll look it up later.
SPREE34 From United States of America, joined Jun 2004, 2113 posts, RR: 10 Reply 6, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1403 times:
I still think the EA paint scheme (white w/hockey stick) is one of the best out there. I wonder how long it would have remained had hard financial times not come, or even how long the stick on silver would have lasted.
I don't understand everything I don't know about this.
Dc863 From Denmark, joined Jun 1999, 1554 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1393 times:
The buffed aluminum was introduced in 1976 I believe. EA had some 721's still with the white crown as late as the early 80s and even had some painted all neutral gray.
Dutchjet From Netherlands, joined Oct 2000, 7864 posts, RR: 58 Reply 8, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 1383 times:
The silver livery at Eastern was partly in response to the first gas crisis in the US during the early 1970s - taking much of the paint off of the airplanes are using the meal finish saved a bit of weight (a couple of hundred pounds or more) on each airliner and thus saved energy. Whats the saying? Every little bit helps. The metal look also freshened up Eastern's classic look. Do note that EA's A300s never had the polished metal look, but thats another story, AA flew their A300s is the horrible battleship gray colors until it was figured out how to polish up the metal and alloys used by Airbus.
Mainliner From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 367 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days ago) and read 1378 times:
There's an article in Airways Magazine that goes into great detail as to why many airlines left the bellies of their aircraft bare. I believe it made it easier to search for corrosion or dirt kicked up from the landing gear. Eastern's and American's A300s had to be painted white or grey to protect the fuselage sections from corrosion because Airbus didn't treat them with Alclad.
Philb From Ireland, joined May 1999, 2915 posts, RR: 14 Reply 10, posted (7 years 10 months 2 days ago) and read 1330 times:
In the early and mid 1980s Eastern had a large number of 727-200s in two versions of a grey scheme with cheatlines both along the window line and under. Painted to avoid expensive time polishing and cleaning, they looked horrendous, almost as if they were camouflaged and looked a lot dirtier than the polished metal and the white machines ever did.
Cody From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1918 posts, RR: 9 Reply 12, posted (7 years 10 months 22 hours ago) and read 1150 times:
Weren't the 727-200's that Eastern bought from PSA painted grey because they could not polish them for some reason? For a short period Eastern kept the PSA scheme with EASTERN titles. This caused confusion amog the passengers. I wonder how they will react when they go to the gate expecting to board US AIRWAYS and see the PSA retro paint.
Didn't they fly some DC-10's from Western that were white? I remember them between ORD-DFW for 6 months to a year, and the dark blue leather seats up front. Don't know if they leased them for a period of time or acquired them and converted over time.
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