British Airways today unveiled the last of four liveries, celebrating 100 years of British Airways – with the return of the Negus livery
The introduction of Negus
With the British Overseas Airline Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA) merging under a movement in parliament in 1971, the combined entity – British Airways emerged (and indeed – what was the beginning of the airline that we know of today).
The Negus design took elements of both BOAC’s and BEA’s designs (for example – the iconic Speedbird was retained from BOAC, whilst a part of the BEA SpeedJack tail was used).
The design was by Negus and Negus, designed by Dick Negus.
Negus on a model Boeing 747.
It flew initially in 1974, and this variant with the small “airways” flew until 1980. In fact, the agency managed to get the airline to drop the “Airways” part from some of its aircraft for some years.
And yes, it even featured in adverts for a while – with the airline promising “We’ll take more care of you”. Mr Bond would seem to agree.
Best product placement ever. @British_Airways #Moonraker pic.twitter.com/eczVomwiPo
— Kevin – Economy Class & Beyond (@EconomyBeyond) April 28, 2018
Moonraker – MGM/United Artists
In this variant, Interestingly, the Union Flag is not present on the side of the aircraft as, like the final BEA aircraft livery, the flag began to be fully celebrated on the aircraft’s tailfin instead.
In the 80s, as British Airways was prepared for privatisation, the familiar Landor Livery (by Landor Associates) began to take hold, ending the era of Negus for a while.
The design flew again in 2010, in the last month of Boeing 757 operation – with G-CPET
The plane
G-CIVB is the plane that went to Dublin for a fresh coat of paint. This work was carried out by IAC. This plane will be retained by the airline until 2022 when it is due to be retired from service (a little earlier than the BOAC and Landor livered planes, but not as early as the BEA plane).
The plane is configured as a Mid-J Plane, with 14 First Class seats, 52 Club World Seats, 36 World Traveller Plus and 235 World Traveller seats. Sadly, it does retain the classic Rockwell Collins IFE system.
On Approach
Passing Technical Block N
Wecome to Heathrow Negus.
The plane coming to TBN
On tow
Flying the flag
Parked at Technical Block North
The flight crew and the BA Ambassadors
Looking down the fusalage
We’ll take more care of you.
The tail section – note the BA 100 Logo, and the gold Boeing 747 lettering
Pro-tip – APU’s are loud.
Welcome back Negus
For a lot of people, they love Landor as the livery the saw first on a British Airways plane. For me, I’m a little bit older – and I remember Negus livered planes from my childhood. So for me, it’s a welcome return of the classic red, white and dark blue.
And the job that has been done to celebrate the BA100 celebrations is a wonderful job – just like they’ve done for all their historic livery.
ALL IMAGES – KEVIN – ECONOMY CLASS AND BEYOND.
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