New Paint for CAN FORCE One

[Gannet167]

The RCAF's VIP Airbus A310 (CC-150 "Polaris" in military parlance) has a new livery. Interesting. I would have sworn that it's an Aeroflot jet. I think they spelled "Conservative Party" wrong on the side. The blue looks awfully ... blue. It is an air force airplane so I suppose blue isn't out of place, but the shade of blue doesn't look quite right. In sun light the blue looks purple.


Aeroflot livery:


The old paint looked good, it's a unique paint job and tasteful in a military theme. But it didn't really say "Head of State":


I'm not a party member or necessarily a supporter of any of them, but personally I would have liked the old 707's sceme, which they could have freshened up a bit.


Interesting article on how the scheme was chosen: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/07/26 ... lanedesign

[Colonel Sanders]

The old paint looked good

Really? You like the "primer grey" look?!

[Sidebar]

But it didn't really say "Head of State"

Much as Stephen Harper might like to be known as "head of state", that title rightfully belongs to the Governor General of Canada. The prime minister is actually the "head of government."

[costermonger]

I think it's actually a nice paint scheme, but c'mon.. Did they really think people weren't going to notice that they've painted an air force asset in party colours? They didn't even use the same blue as the RCAF roundel.

[snowbear]

I am not a big supporter of the new color. The blue does not reflect Canada's official colors. Of much bigger concern is how the media is portraying this as a $50000.00 paint job. Anybody who has painted any aircraft in the last few years knows that amount does not pass the smell test. It might reflect the price of the additional design work but certainly not the full cost.

[jeta1]

The wave in the blue section makes it look like a cross between a SeaWorld Willy the Orca plane, and a Election-campaign-ready PC flagship. Sure it's nice, but totally inappropriate, and yet another misguided subtle attempt to tell the Americans that we can have a flashy Air Force One or Canada One.... They sell half the Challenger fleet, but they put a new unnecessary suit on the Airbus. Fail.

[Gannet167]

I didn't see the old scheme as primer grey. It was high gloss and had a mysterious, almost sinister look to it. It looked low vis and military-ish.

This aircraft also carries the Governor General from time to time, and in either circumstance it's treated as a head of state flight.

The paint looks good - don't get me wrong. It's a flashy paint job. But if you covered up the "Canada" in the worlds "Government of Canada" and the roundel, and showed it to 100 people, I bet zero would guess it's a Canadian government airplane.

It just doesn't say "Canada" the way the Argentine plane does:


Or France's A330:


Or Germany's 340:


Or Japan's 747:


Or Greece's G5:


Or Mexico's 757 (soon to be replaced with a 787 VIP):


To me, this plane does a better job of saying "Canada"

[xysn]

Some media have been careful to note that it was an extra $50k for the new paint, some not so much. Not really a fan, personally. Maybe its the orca wave. Apparently PMO/PCO and DND battled it out for a few years before PMO/PCO got its way.

[Colonel Sanders]

You're probably not old enough to remember when
Mike Pearson gave Canada (lucky us) a new flag:



which looked suspiciously like the Liberal Party Logo:



But I guess that kind of partisanship is ok.

Again, you're probably not old enough, but this
used to be our flag:



Note the blue trim in it, conspicuously lacking from
the Mike Pearson Liberal Party Canadian flag.

You'll have to forgive those of us whom aren't
card-carry Liberal party members, and recall
Canada before Pearson, Hellyer and Trudeau.

[Go Juice]

Pretty sure the cost of that paint job would have covered many years of Air Cadets glider programs!!

[Gannet167]

Be that as it may Colonel (I don't carry any card either), the internationally recognized symbol of Canada for several decades now, regardless of which party is in power, is the Canadian flag. Not the Conservative Party of Canada's brand. I agree that the Liberals brand was, and is quite similar to the flag.

But nevertheless, it's my country's flag. The new paint scheme has little to do with my national colours (or, for that matter the colours of the old Red Ensign flag.) When Mexico's PAN party was in power, they didn't repaint their aircraft and have every federal government website redone in their party colours. They left everything in national green white and red (which have always been their national colours, and the same colours as the other major potilical party and their opponents, PRI)

I don't see how my age has anything to do with it. You may not be old enough to remember, the first flag known to be flown over Canada was St George's cross. That has little to do with anything.

In fairness, the aircraft was apparently due to be repainted anyway and the paint is therefore allegedly cost neutral. I just don't find the Aeroflot paint job looks very Canadian - by whatever flag or era you want to define it by. If they wanted it to look "Air Force" then the dark blue paint on some Canadian military aircraft would have been a better choice, with gold coat of arms and white accents... Maybe some D day invasion stripes....

[single_swine_herder]

The red, white, and blue combination on roundels and specialty aircraft paint schemes goes back to at least 1924 in the RCAF, with a progression of colour shading and structural changes along the way to where we are today.

To ascribe the current paint job of "RCAF Zero One" to being a flying promotional banner of the Conservative Party of Canada is the product of minds adversely affected by the sweat-inducing, brain overheating fever associated with "Stephen Harper Derangement Syndrome."

I think it looks great, and should remain exactly as-is.

When the Green Party or NDP finally forms a government in seven generations when a sufficiently large segment of the population have lost their minds, they can ground all air travel for all I care.

I'll be long way through the process of becoming cosmic dust.

[Old Dog Flying]

The new paint job does look great and far better than the Mulroney Grey scheme.which of course was used to camoflage the beast from the public. Of course Trudeau will have it painted pink, Tommy M will repaint it Orange with a Fleur de Lis on the tail and Whats-her-name will paint it Green with a Maryjane leaf.

That should make the CC-150 about 50 years old by the time they scrap it.

Barney

[Rockie]

The DND fought against painting the plane for years including the Minister. It was driven entirely by, and eventually forced by the same sycophantic hyper-partisan, non-elected party hacks in the PMO that paid off Mike Duffy and bring us all those delightful attack ads. You know, the same people spending OUR money promoting THEIR party in government advertisements like the economic action plan.

Is anybody stupid enough not to think that paint scheme is deliberately "Conservative"?

[Colonel Sanders]

it's my country's flag

I would agree that it is the flag of Mike Pearson,
Paul Hellyer (UFO nut and destroyer of the Canadian
military) and Pierre Elliot Trudeau, whom is no doubt
the worst Prime Minister Canada has ever had - read
Bob Plamondon's biography.

Personally, I like the Ensign, and a little blue (which
you probably didn't notice is also in the RCAF Roundel)
doesn't hurt, although you may find it fatally offensive.

[Shiny Side Up]

I didn't realise that the Colonel was such an avid vexillologist.

He should then realise that the maple leaf is what inspires the Liberal logo (appearing well after chronologically) rather than the other way around. Vexillogogist yes, historian no.

While I happen also to like the Red Ensign as a design and for its historical significance, I do like that the Maple Leaf is uniquely Canadian since I don't have any particular connection to the British royalty as the coat of arms on the Red Ensign represents. I suppose the signs of the Colonel's royalist roots have always been there, there is after all that big picture of the Queen and Prince Phillip in a place of honor in his hangar.

[Siddley Hawker]

Didn't Pearson's first offering have three red maple leaves, joined at the stem, on a white background, with a blue border on either side?



I remember the NDP's offering as this one, which I thought was quite handsome.



When Dief the Chief nixed anything except the Red Ensign, Pearson to him to go perform a physical impossibility and chose the one we have now. I would have preferred the single red leaf with the dark blue border, but what the hey? I like the one we have.

[shitdisturber]

I didn't realise that the Colonel was such an avid vexillologist.

He should then realise that the maple leaf is what inspires the Liberal logo (appearing well after chronologically) rather than the other way around. Vexillogogist yes, historian no.

While I happen also to like the Red Ensign as a design and for its historical significance, I do like that the Maple Leaf is uniquely Canadian since I don't have any particular connection to the British royalty as the coat of arms on the Red Ensign represents. I suppose the signs of the Colonel's royalist roots have always been there, there is after all that big picture of the Queen and Prince Phillip in a place of honor in his hangar.

Ok, spill! How much time did you spend on the internet before you came up with "vexillologist"?

[Gannet167]

whom is no doubt the worst Prime Minister Canada has ever had - read Bob Plamondon's biography.

We are in violent agreement.

a little blue (which you probably didn't notice is also in the RCAF Roundel) doesn't hurt, although you may find it fatally offensive.

I did notice the roundel. I've flown many aircraft with roundels on them, many of them painted blue. The Air Force blue on the roundel is different from the other blue on the aircraft. I don't find it melodramatically "fatal" in any way. Just as a tax paying Canadian, it's a little bit curious.

I wonder how that jet will look when they have to rob an engine, or flap assembly off of another tail, and end up with a Frankenstein looking plane rolling up to some international summit. I know a few guys well who used to fly this plane - they used to use this one to move troops and cargo around when the other tails were down for maintenance or otherwise busy. I wonder if there's an appetite to continue using this one when required operationally. It may look a little funny to have this plane moving cargo and soldiers around - with the other paint that activity was fairly inconspicuous as it was just another grey Airbus. If the paint makes it a single purpose airplane, that's gotta hurt the Air Force's capability.

[JBI]

While not a Harper fan, I do like the paint job. Perhaps not the best representation of being distinctly Canadian but I think it looks sharp.

Here's an interesting article from last year about the design process, including pictures of some of the different options. It sounds as if the PMO's office was very involved in its design http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/07/26 ... lanedesign

As for AvCanada's version of "Fun with Flags with your host Dr. Sheldon Cooper", let's get the history straight on the Canadian Flag.

The Liberals had a minority government when Pearson proposed the motion to have a new flag. The Conservatives filibustered until a committee was set up to pick a design. The committee was made up of 7 Liberals, 5 Conservatives, 1 NDP, 1 Social Credit and 1 Ralliement créditiste MP.

The flag that Pearson (and the Liberals) originally wanted was based on the theme of "From sea to sea" which is outlined in a post above with the blue borders and three Maple Leafs. It is only because the Conservatives would not agree to anything Pearson that we instead have the red borders (the inspiration of which came from the flag of the Royal Military College of Canada). So, while I certainly support Colonel's ability to have an opinion on the paint job, the flag and political parties, to suggest that the red Maple Leaf flag is based on the Liberal Party's logo is simply wrong.

[FastFlyBy]

It just looks a lot like this to me. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion, if I ignore the fact that the party has adapted the same colors. I for one do actually like the military gray scheme though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Royal ... -1968).svg

[MacStork]

I guess this is why I really enjoy AVCANADA so much ...... With all of the serious issues on the horizon in Canada, we end up arguing about the colours of our Government aircraft and the Canadian flag. Now it just doesn't get any better than that!

[frosti]

Whiners gonna whine.

[StratusSmoke]

Presumably this aircraft is still going to be used for moving military personnel and assets into harms way. If so, this paint scheme is inappropriate and may place the crew and passengers into a higher level of danger. If not, then does the country really need such a large aircraft to ferry around so called VIPs?

[Dash-Ate]

Red White and Blue = USA!


Representing CONs have sold us out again. Muldooney and NAFTA. I bet H has sold our fresh water rights already. They've already signed agreement allowing US troops over here on duty if needed. Never say never do you think they are playing games or playing for keeps?

RIP