American Airlines and Delta 787 Dreamliners?

Question

I've read that Boeing has begun talks with American and Delta about future orders for the 787 Dreamliners. The 787s composit fusilage looks like it comes off the production line a kind of muddy brown color. Is it likely that American will opt for a silver paint job to match the rest of their unpainted polished metal fleet?

American Airlines does not paint their aircraft. They are always polished aluminium with a stick on red white and blue stripe down the window line.

Interesting observation Drewpie. My argument is, the aircraft will come off the line and requiring a colored outer coating of some type. White would look good but clearcoat is out of the question. I'm betting on silver. Time will tell.

Answer 1

American's airplanes are not painted or clearcoated (at least not as delivered). They are bare polished aluminum. The sheet aluminum used for the fuselage- let's say a 777- is 2524 aluminum. It has a very thin coating of pure aluminum on the outside. This is soft and polishable, and also forms an aluminum oxide coating which is corrosion resistant. Boeing offers polished aluminum (it costs more but reduces weight); Airbus doesn't which is why American's A300s were painted gray.

They can have any color they want but perhaps it will be the same gray they use on the Airbus airplanes.

The 787 is that muddy color due to a surface filler. All 787s will have to be painted, as the epoxy resin can't tolerate exposure to ultraviolet light.

Answer 2

There fleet is not all Alum colored btw. They polish coat a lot of their airplanes to save weight on the airframe and reflect solar heat. The 787 will be painted with a base -white- color and then the traditional Blue and Red accents.

Just like this:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0704456/M/

EDIT Joe is correct the paint will weigh almost 2000 LBS.

Answer 3

Always in anything you do to an aircraft you consider the weight added. In the issue of paint, certainly the entire body needs some sort of protection from the elements. Would you believe inside and out. Less is not always best. On any large aircraft you may have something in the area of 1500 to 2000 lbs of paint alone. This is certainly a consideration as to how much any operator is going to apply in decor.

Answer 4

yea most likely American will pain all their planes silver including the 787. the pain the airlines use weights about 600 to 700 LBS....so American is smart by not painting their planes and polishing them saving them a lot of money. the brownish color is just Boeing livery.

Answer 5

that could remember on the format of the airplane.. to illustrate if the two airlines fly 767's and the two are laid out for 250 passengers then there could be not extra area on one or the different, If American has a 2 hundred seat floor plan and Delta has a 250 seat floor plan then you definitely could have extra area on the yank flight. the finest thank you to make particular extra area is to fly employer or top notch.

Answer 6

The customer ops to paint the new planes to match the color of their fleet.

Some are done at the factory and some are done by the air lines.

Sometimes with a new generation of air craft, the air lines up date their color and logo schemes.

The whole process is dynamic.

Answer 7

American will have it painted like their other planes.