When an aircraft is manufactured, it needs to be painted in an airline’s colours prior to being delivered. Aer Lingus has posted a short video showing one of their new planes being worked on in Toulouse.
Not only are the colours important for the branding, but it also protects the outer surface of the metal. White is a common enough colour, as it reflects the heat of the sun and keeps cabins cooler.
A Plane Being Painted
The new Airbus A320neo is registered EI-NSC and has been named St. Fergal. Aer Lingus always christens their planes with the names of saints, a tradition that goes back quite a long way.
In the video, you see everything from the paint being mixed, all the way through to the fully painted airframe. It’s quite a big job, even if the A320 is one of the smaller jets out there.
Overall Thoughts
Being an aircraft painter at Toulouse must be interesting, as there would be such a variety of different liveries to do. What I found interesting is that there is some detail work painted by hand, which you might not commonly expect.
The plane looks wonderful once it’s painted in its new Aer Lingus livery. There are still many aircraft still in their old colours, but they will gradually get done when they’re due for a repaint.
Have you ever painted an aircraft? I imagine you probably haven’t, though perhaps you’ve done a house or something like that. What did you think of the video? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Anna Zvereva via Wikimedia Commons.
