• Home
  • About
    • Where has GhettoIFE gone?
    • For PR’s and Agencies (Changes and Corrections)
    • Privacy Policy
  • Snapshots
  • Trip Reports
  • Travel Plus…
    • … Technology
    • … Photography

Economy Class & Beyond

You are here: Home / Airplane Art / Welcome back BOAC – British Airways 100th Anniversary and the BOAC Livery

Welcome back BOAC – British Airways 100th Anniversary and the BOAC Livery

18/02/2019 by Kevincm

Today, G-BYGC has arrived back for the paint shop in Dublin, in a special livery to celebrate 100 years of British Airways.

This plane will feature the colours of the British Overseas Airways Corporation – or BOAC

a large airplane flying in the sky
British Airways BOAC Boeing 747-400 arriving at London Heathrow Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond/Kevin Marshall Photography – further photos in the article

A short BOAC History

BOAC was formed in 1939 as a merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Limited (1935-1939). It contained through the war years until 1946, where European services were split off (forming British European Airways (BEA)), and. British South American Airways (BSAA).

BOAC absorbed BSAA in 1949. with BEA containing to operate as is.

The end of the airline was marked by a 1971 Act of Parliament – which in effect merged BOAC and BEA.

On the 31st March 1974, this turned into the beginnings of the airline we know today as British Airways.

The airline ran many different types of aircraft as it entered the jet age including

  • de Havilland Comet
  •  Boeing 707
  • Vickers VC10
  •  Boeing 747-100

The airline would have introduced Concorde too, except by the time Concorde entered service, it was as a British Airways aircraft (and the first Concorde delivered was of course – G-BOAC)

The paintwork used represents the paintwork of BOAC between 1964 and 1974.

As BOAC’s later life was tied to the Boeing 747 family (and in the end, British Airways itself became a big 747 customer), it seems only fitting that a Boeing 747-400 is painted as part of British Airways 100th Anniversary.

BOAC’s legacy with British Airways

The legacy of BOAC can be seen – even today on British Airways aircraft. If we look at the logo, we can see a Speedbird on the end of it (the originator of the SPEEDBIRD callsign).

Invalid request error occurred.

The went through to the Negus Livery worn between 1974-1985 which moved the Speedbird to the front of the plane.

This was superseded by the Speedwing introduced with the Landor livery in 1984, and finally, the Speedmarque that was introduced in 1997 as part of the “Utopia tails” project.

The Speedmarque lives on today aboard British Airways fleet, with the Chatham Dockyard tail that flies today.

a plane on the runway
British Airways Boeing 747-400 with the Speedmarque as part of the British Airways title – Image, Economy Class and Beyond

Welcoming G-BYCG to Heathrow

G-BYCG arrived at Heathrow today after a visit to Dublin to get its new coat of paint.

a plane flying in the sky
G-BYCG coming in to a rather wet Heathrow

 

a large airplane on a runway
Taxing over to the TBN (the old BMI hangers)

a large airplane on a runway a large airplane on a runway
Tug attached

a group of people standing in front of a plane
Welcome home

a group of people standing next to a plane

a plane with a staircase
Stairs attached

 

a group of people on a plane
Welcome to London Heathrow and back to the Jetset age.

 

a large airplane on a wet runway
At rest outside the hanger. 

a group of people standing next to a plane a large airplane on a runway
Being towed into the hanger 

a large airplane in a hangar a large airplane in a hangar  an airplane in a hangar
Nose to nose 

a plane in a hangar a plane in a hangar
The major modification to the livery – the British Airways 100 Logo and Speedmarque on the back of the plane

a group of people in uniform standing in a hangar
The flight crew

a large airplane in a hangar a large jet engine in a hangar

And the inside?

G-BYCG will retain a Super-Hi J configuration, configured with

  • 14 First Class open suites (first class)
  • 86 Club World Seats (business class)
  • 30 World Traveller Plus seats (premium economy)
  • 145 World Traveller Seats (economy)

The plane is configured with a Gogo 2Ku dome, and Panasonic ex3 In-Flight Entertainment System.

In addition, G-BYCG will have something in every seat pocket – one of these, that explains why the plane is in this colour scheme.

a hand holding a picture of a plane a hand holding a paper with text

To fly, To serve

The plane will retain its paintwork until 2023 – when it is expected that the plane will be retired. As we all know, the Boeing 747 family is in its sunset years, as airlines choose the efficient twin-engined aircraft over four-engined variants.

And it’s a rather nice send off for this Boeing 747-400.

In the short-term, this aircraft will be heading to New York tomorrow (19th February), and Chicago. (20th February).

Keep an eye out for it when you travel!

Economy Class and Beyond was a media guest of British Airways.

Gallery

British Airways BOAC 747-400 - Image, Economy class and Beyond

 


Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, with in-depth coverage, unique research as well as the humour and madness as I only know how to deliver.

Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates! You can also follow me on Instagram too!

Also remember that as well as being part of BoardingArea, we’re also part of BoardingArea.eu, delivering frequent flyer news, miles and points to the European reader.

Related

Filed Under: Airplane Art

Trackbacks

  1. British Airways BOAC centenary livery arrives! - Points to be Made says:
    19/02/2019 at 5:55 am

    […] Kevin from Economy Class and Beyond was invited along to the special event, and also posted about the event. […]

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Instagram
  • Mastodon
  • RSS
  • Threads

Recent Posts

  • United Airlines partners with Spotify for content
  • Royal Brunei selects Intelsat for Mutli-Orbit In-Flight Connectivity
  • Lufthansa activates Free Inflight Messaging for intercontinental flights
  • JetBlue and Brightline to lauch multimodal travel options in Florida
  • Data Storage Adventures – Part 4 – Moving data around using ROBOCOPY

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates daily and to hear what's going on with us!

Privacy Policy
Copyright © Economy Class & Beyond All Rights Reserved.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Economy Class & Beyond with appropriate and specific directions to the original content.