Welcome back to the second part of the blog, Designing for Aircraft Fleets. In this section, we’ll focus on the exterior paint design. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the first part of this blog on interiors.

UNIVERSAL AIRCRAFT ELEMENTS

When developing a paint scheme across different aircraft frames, try tying the design to elements that are going to be on every aircraft. Something like a colored engine or tail helps create consistency across the fleet, even when the varying models can look very different. Another way of doing this is to create a design that is the top or bottom half. In the example for this post, the swooping blue design is confined to only the top half of the airframes.

SIGNATURE COLOR PALETTE

Just like the interior, the exterior color palette sets the tone for your entire aircraft fleet. Signature paint colors will provide the first impression and create consistency across the different aircraft models. If you choose to paint your fleet with specific colors, like Pantone colors from your business logo, be sure to plan for extra time in the approval process. Creating custom aviation paint samples can add an extra 1-2 weeks.

COORDINATION IS KEY

Don’t get too caught up in making sure each airframe has an identical scheme. With different aircraft, the stripes are never going to line up in quite the same way and might create odd proportions if you don’t consider each model.

This can become tricky when some aircraft have t-tails or winglets, and others don’t. The approach for both is similar. You can either leave them the base color or take the opportunity to give each plane a unique design feature like in the example provided for this post. Each winglet has a varying design detail, but the scheme is consistent. You’ll want to create the same overall feeling utilizing the prior tips, but don’t worry about creating a perfect match.

Although there isn’t an exact science to creating the perfect paint scheme for your fleet, these tips will help guide you in the right direction. If you need help with creating a branded experience for your fleet, I would love to help. Feel free to reach out here.