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The Calder 727
Some of you might remember the Calder paint schemes on two of the aircraft in Braniff’s fleet Alexander Calder had come up with a fancy paint scheme for first the DC-8 which primarily flew in South America. Next came the B-727 that was a tribute to America’s bicentennial which was coming up a couple of years after the paint scheme’s debut. It was red white and blue but unlike any flag that you ever saw. Needless to say, it was eyecatching and Braniff planned to put the aircraft on static display in Washington, D.C. for the celebration. The Calder 727 had been flying since 1974 and the paint was a little weathered so they repainted it just prior to July 4th. They had ferried the aircraft from the paint shop as Dallas Love to DFW for a revenue flight to DCA on the third. I’m sure the paint really looked spiffy when it came out of the paint shop, but it looked like hell when it showed up at DFW. Some bright mechanic had left the oil cap off the number 3 engine and the short flight had sprayed oil all over the new paint. Needless to say departure was delayed while a team of cleaners worked over the tail end of the aircraft. Another smooth move.
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Braniff Airways - B-727 Flight Engineer - Mid 70's
| 2/18/2004
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