And I’m indebted to my pal Travel doyen and ITNN group editor Fionn Davenport for steering me on this one, as I revisit an old favourite, here’s Flyday Friday’s beautiful beasts of the sky.
The Airbus Beluga XL flew into Shannon Airport this week for some high wind testing.
And got us all dreaming of riding the beautiful beasts of the skies again and reflecting on their eye-catching liveries.
So you say whale Fionn, well, I raise you a shark.
Oh, the Shark, babe has such teeth, dear
Embraer: This beauty has some bite, it’s the Embraer E190-E2 and it swallowed me whole in Ireland.
Sharks in Ireland? Well there are plenty in its parliament, the Dáil, but otherwise this is the closest to the Jaws of the sea that you’ll ever see there.
Of all the strange and wonderful mornings I spent in 13 years in Ireland the hours I spent flying from A-B, or Dublin to Waterford, on a shark is an experience I clearly never imagined having.
The beauty of the Embraer is not just on the outside with the interior spanking and with the best feature no middle seats.
Tiger, Tiger burning bright
Aeroflot Siberian Tiger: The Russians, of course, are consistently in the world’s crosshairs.
So credit where credit’s due with Rossiya Airlines dressing its plane up as a tiger to draw attention to the plight of the Siberian Tiger.
In 2015 research showed there were only 500 left in the wild.
Panda air
British Airways: Now all of us here around Edinburgh where we have two beauts in the Zoo love a panda.
And so do British Airways who celebrated their route to Chengdu, home of the Giant Panda, marked the occasion with this livery.
Of course, Brits have a lot in common with pandas… sitting around all day doing nothing but graze and scratching our asses with sleepy black eyes.
Oh Mickey you’re so fine
Now every mouse has a tail, obvs.
Mickey is always guaranteed to put a smile on your face and this is clearly what WestJet had in their mind with their ‘Magic Plane’ which features Our Mouse in his role of Sorcerer Mickey.
Or for big fans of Mickey you might say a Flight of Fantasia.
Tintin can
And we are, of course, suckers for our hero, the adventurous young journalist Tintin.
Brussels Airlines are bigging up the famous Belgian boy on the back of the film Red Rackham’s Treasure and theres’ a submarine theme running through it.
We’d only hope Bianca Castefiore didn’t board. Her singing would shatter any window.
Stars of the skies
Star Wars: And, of course, you would expect Star Wars to be all over the skies.
And the never-ending franchise has plenty of images from which to pick, of course.
We’ll go with a favourite. Airline, that is, and United Airlines and its The Rise of Skywalker livery.
Of Star Wars we know little but were there for its arrival at Disneyland in Anaheim and got to enjoy the galaxy far, far away.
Now everyone’s got a place in our choir, so whichever is your favourite, let’s get back on these beautiful beasts of the skies.