Klwright69 From Saudi Arabia, joined Jan 2000, 1810 posts, RR: 3 Posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 3137 times:
I remember when the original PA named all their 747's. For example there was the "Maiden of the Seas." I found the concept rather clever. Has any other carrier done this? I yeah, I just realized that FI does this! When I flew to KEF and back on the "Svandis."
PlaneHunter From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6219 posts, RR: 79 Reply 3, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 1 day ago) and read 3076 times:
Many carriers name their aircraft on a regular basis. Examples (in addition to the ones already mentioned):
AeBal
Aegean Als
Aeroflot
Air Algerie
Air Arabia
Air Austral
Air Dolomiti
Air Greenland
Air India
Air Italy
Air Jamaica
Air Macau
Air Malta
Air Mauritius
Air Nostrum
Air Tahiti Nui
Al Rais Cargo
Alitalie Express
Aloha Airlines
Arik Air
Bangkok Air
Bellview Als
Best Air
Blue1
Blue Dart Aviation
bmi baby
Buraq Air
Capital Cargo
Cargolux
Cayman Airways
Croatia Airlines
CSA Czech
Cyrus Airways
Darwin Airline
Dubrovnik Airlines
Edelweiss Air
EL AL
Eritrean Als
Eurocypria
FedEx
Gemini Air Cargo
Georgian Aws
Hawaiian
Iberia
Inter Airlines
Izair
KD Avia
Jetairfly
Jet2
jetBlue
KTHY
Kuwait Airways
Kuzu Cargo
Livingston
Lufthansa CityLine
Luxair
MIAT
Neos
Niki
Nok Air
North American
Pacific Blue
Qantas
Qatar Airways
Royal Jordanian
Saga Airlines
SilverJet
SATA
Sevenair
Sky Airlines
SpiceJet
Sunstate Airlines
Surinam Airways
Syrian Arab
Swiss
TACV
TAME
Tarom
Thai Airways
Thomas Cook (Belgium)
TT Airlines
Tunisair
Turkish Airlines
UM Air
USA 3000
Virgin America
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Blue
VLM
Vueling
Yemenia
Zoom Als
Other carriers used to name their aircraft, but stopped doing so. Examples:
Aerolitoral
Air France
Air Namibia
Biman Bangladesh
British Airways
Egypt Air
Estonian Air
Gulf Air
Horizon Als
Icelandair
JAL
LOT
Malaysia Als
Mexicana
South African
Spanair
SriLankan Als
Uzbekistan Airways
Banco From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 14752 posts, RR: 55 Reply 4, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 1 day ago) and read 3064 times:
My old airline had one that constantly went wrong and whose registration finished with PS. It was known as Piece of Shit across the company. Does that count?
She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot.
CF105Arrow From Canada, joined Oct 2007, 317 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 1 day ago) and read 3057 times:
Quoting Banco (Reply 4): My old airline had one that constantly went wrong and whose registration finished with PS. It was known as Piece of Shit across the company. Does that count?
ZuluLima From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 266 posts, RR: 3 Reply 7, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 2985 times:
There's also Frontier, who names the animals on the tails. I think those are also the names of the planes themselves, but no names appear on the fuselage. Frontier's seem to be the least serious; some are downright corny. Examples: Mustang "Sally" or Rabbit "Stu".
I like that FedEx gives theirs common first names (after employee's children), they have two planes with my name in service (A300, 727), but this can kind of backfire when the employees don't use taste when naming their children, like "Zebradedra" or "Xenophon". Also, does anyone know why N492FE is named "Two Bears"?
Bok269 From United States of America, joined May 2007, 2105 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 2847 times:
Quoting ZuluLima (Reply 7): Also, does anyone know why N492FE is named "Two Bears"?
Native American maybe?
From what I have read, at B6 they have naming contests for each new aircraft amongst their employees. Winners get to go to TLS (or SBGP I guess) and paricipate in the delivery.
Surfpunk From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 227 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (5 years 7 months 4 weeks 7 hours ago) and read 2776 times:
NW used to name their 757 fleet (55xx series 752s) after U.S. cities, a la "City of Detroit", "City of Los Angeles", etc. This was back before they rolled out the bowling shoe livery in the late 80's.
Xtoler From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 942 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 2702 times:
We had nicknames for some of our aircraft, but we weren't allowed to paint names on them.
We had a white J41 with US Airways Express that was really supposed to be a spare, but US Airways Express was in black lettering anyway. I think we called it the "White Ghost". We had N555HK J41 also with USExpress, we called "Tripple Nickle". My favorite was N829HK we got from CrossAir, started out as US Airways Express. With US Airways Colors, it would triple up as that, United Express, and American Connection. The nicest thing I could think of with that would be "Identity Crisis", but right before I left the airline, they'd already painted it with our own colors and just used it as a spare.
When I was in the Air Force there was a 141B flying around with no paint. Someone painted a Coors Lite logo next to the main door and it was called the "Silver Bullett". One last one I can remember though, was a 130H, I think from Dyess on a three month rotation at Mildnehall back in the Bravo Squadron days. The last three of the tail number was 666 and we called it "Damien". That was '91 or '92, if not both and politically correctness was already run rampant, as well as "Total Quality Management" in the US Military (and ya'll civilians thought we were gung ho Clinton haters, but old man Bush did start it). We weren't allowed to paint some evil nose art on it.
I don't know if those examples count for anything. We definately need to see more names and nose art on aircraft.
EMB145 F/A, F/E, J41 F/A, F/E, because my wife clipped my wings, armchair captain
Andz From South Africa, joined Feb 2004, 8306 posts, RR: 11 Reply 15, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 2635 times:
Quoting Banco (Reply 4): My old airline had one that constantly went wrong and whose registration finished with PS. It was known as Piece of Shit across the company. Does that count?
SAA had an A-300 regustered ZS-SDD that seemed to have more problems than the other 300s in the fleet, which earned it the name "Double Disaster". My wife operated a flight on it once and when approaching JNB there were no green lights indictaing locked landing gear. A few circuits and a fly by the tower gave the crew the assurance the gear was down and they landed without incident. SDD is now in the ocean as an artificial reef.
After Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says WTF...
VV701 From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 6679 posts, RR: 17 Reply 16, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 2602 times:
Quoting Klwright69 (Thread starter): I remember when the original PA named all their 747's. For example there was the "Maiden of the Seas." I found the concept rather clever. Has any other carrier done this?
The consistent factor in the names of PA aircraft was the word "Clipper". Often during their lifetime they were renamed. So N747PA (19639/2) was named "Clipper America" when it was delivered to PA in October 1970. Then ten years later in 1980 it was renamed "Clipper Sea Lark". Within a year in June 1981 it received its third and final name "Clipper Juan T Trippe".
Others carried more than three names during their service with PA. So, for example, N733PA (19640/6) was named "Clipper Young America" (December 1969), "Clipper Constitution" (1974), "Clipper Washington" (1976) and "Clipper Pride of the Sea" (1980).
To my knowledge the only other airline to adopt a similar approach is SK. Indeed it could be said they were even more consistent naming all their aircraft "Something Viking" where "Something" was usually a Nordic name. However their first 742, SE-DDL (20120/114) was named "Huge Viking" from delivery in 1971 until November 1981 when it was renamed in line with the rest of their fleet "Bjarne Viking". Their second 742, OY-KHA (20121/167) adopted their standard convention from the start being named "Ivar Viking", a name it retained from delivery in November 1971, when it was re-registered LN-AEO in February 1981 and, apart from during a period in 1982-83 when it was leased by Nigeria Airways, up until it left the SK fleet in March 1986.
Today the name "Bjarne Viking" is carried by an SK MD-81, SE-DMB (53314/1946) which is in store art Riga while "Ivar Viking" is the name currently assigned to SK's MD83 LN-RMN (53295/1922) that is currently leased out to Aligiant.
LH has had a consistent policy of naming its aircraft after German places. So its early 741s D-ABYA (17746/12), D-ABYB (19747/29) and D-ABYC (19748/44) were named after the German States of "Nordrhein-Westfalen", "Hessen", and "Bayern" respectively. Today these names are carried by aircraft in LH's 744 fleet. So D-ABVY (29869/1261) is named "Nordrhein-Westfalen", D-ABVM (20101/1143) "Hessen" and D-ABVU (29492/1191) "Bayern", although LH also uses the names of German towns and cities on some of their 744 fleet and on all their smaller aircraft.
This raises the issue as to whether the above 744s will be renamed when LH's 748i and 380 fleet are delivered. Until 1997 BA had a consistent naming policy for its aircraft. Its 741 and 742 fleet carried the names of major British cities. So, for example 741 G-AWNG (20269/150) was named "City of London". But it was renamed "Rutland Water" in March 1989 and when BA's first 744 G-BNLA (23908/727) was delivered three months later it carried the "City of London" name originally assigned to its older half sister.
Bennett123 From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2004, 6392 posts, RR: 1 Reply 17, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 2590 times:
Trintocan From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2000, 3192 posts, RR: 4 Reply 18, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 2554 times:
BW also used to do so; the DC-9's were named after Trinidadian celebrities (Hasely Crawford, who won 100m gold in the 1976 Olympics and Janelle Penny Commissiong, who won Miss Universe in 1997) as well as after national birds (Scarlet Ibis, Cocrico and Humming Bird). The TriStars were also named after various Caribbean Islands - hence Sunjet Antigua, Sunjet Barbados and the like. The naming ended when BW brought in the green livery in 2000 - this would be its final livery.
Jetmatt777 From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 2674 posts, RR: 36 Reply 19, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 2529 times:
Virgina America has "Air Colbert / N621VA" and "California Dreaming / N622VA"
Gr8Circle From Canada, joined Dec 2005, 2993 posts, RR: 4 Reply 20, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 2479 times:
AI had the naming convention since the Connies in the 1950's.... here is how they named their fleets...
B707's - Himalayan peaks
B742/743 - Indian Kings and Emperors
B744 - Historical places in India
B777 - Indian ragas (classical music themes)
A310 - Rivers in India
Surfpunk From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 227 posts, RR: 0 Reply 22, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 2418 times:
Quoting ZuluLima (Reply 11): Don't they still have one named "The Bernie Epple"?
I have no idea. I'm over 10 years separated from my days at MSP, and NW didn't have any 753s when I left (they had only just started receiving the 56xx-series 752s. It was still named that as of July 2006, according the picture here: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1160429/M/
I don't know if N582NW has been given the new livery yet, and if so, if she still bears the Bernie Epple name.
Regardless, it is still a nice tribute to their longest serving FA.
Afterburner From Indonesia, joined Jun 2005, 1112 posts, RR: 1 Reply 23, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 2405 times:
Garuda Indonesia used to name their aircraft.
747-200s - names of Indonesia's main/largest cities
DC-10 - names of Indonesia's main/largest islands
DC-9 - names of mountains (IIRC)
F-28 - names of rivers
ZTagged From Niger, joined Oct 2007, 516 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (5 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 2399 times:
WN COULD be considered in this thread, but not quite. Not all of WNs ships are named, just a good majority (Or, have some kind of noselogo..).
Something awful.
25 LASOctoberB6: Why is it that Virgin America has only named 2 out of all their other aircraft?
26 ZTagged: They had another one IIRC.. Jefferson Airplane? And I was, too! N625VA - Jefferson Airplane http://www.jetphotos.net/photolink.php?id=6084099 [Edited
27 ZuluLima: I don't think that's anywhere close to being true. WN has around 500 planes and maybe 20-25 are special.
28 NZ8800: Air New Zealand used to name all their aircraft - the 747s were named after Maori Canoes, such as Mataatua and Takitimu, the 767s were generally Ara -
29 JGPH1A: Really, where ? Very cool. The A340-600's still don't have names yet - what's the hold-up ? Best airplane name ever.
30 OA260: I love it when airlines names their A/C to represent where they are from. Olympic Airways /Airlines always named their A/C after Cities and Gods. Airb
31 AirframeAS: I wished F9 would put the animal name near the L1 door or under the cockpit windows. Some of their airplanes have the last two letters on the tail nu
32 Letsgetwet: Continental has named two of their 777's. Robert Six - the founder of the company, and Gordon Bethune- the saviour of the company.
33 Pnwtraveler: CPAir predecessor of Canadian used to name their aircraft "Empress of (then a city name or country)." Kind of a classy but dated way of naming. Previo
34 Andz: I believe off Florida, I will try and find out.
35 NZ8800: Yes CP did, and they often renamed them... the Empress of Winnipeg became the Empress of Buenos Aires and the Empress of Santiago (or was it the other
36 DavidkunzVIE: Thank god, I didn't know that on my JNB-CPT flt in 1999...
37 Transair737: In Canada many former airlies did Canadian Pacific ( CP Air) Pacific Western Transair Wardair
38 Lrdc9: True, but you have t consider the a/c with nose stickers. Also, closer 300 than 500. I love how WN does that too. I think it is great when an airline
39 ZuluLima: No, this isn't 1990. According to airfleets.net, it's 512 in WN's fleet...and I was considering nose stickers. Here's the list I have, there may be s
40 Viscount724: I can't recall Pacific Western naming all their aircraft. Perhaps they named a few but I don't recall seeing a name on any of the PW aircraft I flew
Sponsor Message: 
From Saudi Arabia, joined Jan 2000, 1810 posts, 
From Canada, joined Oct 2007, 317 posts, 
From Netherlands, joined Sep 2004, 4599 posts, 
From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6219 posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 14752 posts, 
From Ireland, joined Mar 2005, 6124 posts, 
From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 266 posts, 
From New Zealand, joined Dec 2005, 1488 posts, 
From South Africa, joined Feb 2004, 8306 posts, 
From Indonesia, joined Jun 2005, 1112 posts, 
From Niger, joined Oct 2007, 516 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
