Will American Airlines ever change their planes livery? Its been the same for forever!?

Question

Thanks just something i have been wondering about.

Answer 1

I suspect not. However, the composites of the upcoming aircraft might make it necessary.

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Answer 2

I asked that question before and couldn't get anyone to answer. With the composite fuselages coming into use like the 787, if they stick with what they have now they'll have go with white or silver for the body of the plane. I'm betting that for the 787 they will go metallic silver and the current livery at least for a while.
There's no doubt that AA has saved a lot of time an money over the decades by leaving their planes with a basic polished metal fuselage. The new planes coming on line like the 787 are non metallic, and come off the line with a kind of mustard brown body and requires some sort of outer color coat in it's final processing. The raw fuselage would not do at all.

Answer 3

As they say, "Don't fix what ain't broke." The old red and blue AA logo is immediately recognizable everywhere just like Lufthansa's stylized blue bird on the yellow background which also hasn't been changed for quite awhile.

Another consideration is that AA's livery employs very little paint leaving most of the aircraft in bare metal. Compare with United's scheme which seems paint every part of the airplane except the tires. The AA's advantage is less non-revenue-generating weight, less cost in painting and less cost in time and materials spent in cosmetic repainting over time.

Answer 4

Probably not!
The polished aluminum skin is actually smoother than a paint job, making it more aerodynamic.
Also, the lack of paint makes it weigh less. (don't think paint adds weight? heft a 5 gallon bucket of paint sometime, multiply that by about 100-500 times [depending on size of aircraft], and get back to me!)
These factors actually help fuel economy (critical at this time of trying to squeeze a buck, and rising fuel cost).

Answer 5

like they said the lack of paint saves money$$$ The actually experiemented with white fusealages in the late 90's on their fleet of MD-90s (not 100% sure if was an experiment or there was an actuall reason it was just the MD-80s), but i remember seeing them as a kid and thought they looked funny and out of place for American.

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Answer 6

i doubt it......it's been forever...like you said and it works for them...so why should they change