Livery

wrote in message
ups.com...
Any links to educative material on livery design and implementation
would be welcome, thanks a lot. Intrigued to know how all the fancy
modern livery gets actually painted on the fuselage... or are stickers
used?

I've heard of both. At the widebody assembly plant here in Everett, WA,
Boeing has some paint hangars in which they carefully paint the airplanes to
the customer's specifications. It's quite a complicated process,
apparently, designed to get just the right amount of paint (not too much
weight, but enough to be durable) and of course just the right image.

It's possible that if you look up information on the Boeing assembly plant
tour (sorry, don't have it handy, but it shouldn't be hard to find with
Google), they might mention some details.

Of course, not everyone has their airplanes painted at the Boeing widebody
assembly plant. That's just one example of how commercial airliners get
painted.

It sounds like you're asking about commercial airliners, but of course
smaller airplanes get painted too. And again, techniques run the gamut, but
paint is the most common. The basic ideas are all simple -- prep the
surface, mask, paint, repeat if necessary with different masks to get
different color designs -- but of course the actual work can be quite
detailed and complex.

I don't know which is easier (assuming you have the necessary equipment).
On the one hand, the big commercial airliners are even more complex than
small airplanes, and prep and application is obviously harder. On the other
hand, the standard of quality might be less on an airliner, at least with
respect to getting the design just right, since people aren't looking at the
paint job from a distance of 12 inches the way they are with a small
airplane.

Pete