American Airlines Liveries

The intention of this page is to describe and show all the American Airlines liveries from 1934 to the present day. Schemes prior to 1934 are not covered.

1934-1945: FLAGSHIP EAGLE ROUNDEL

American's livery evolved gradually over many years but remained essentially a series of variations until 1968. The DC-3s wore Flagship or Flagship Skysleeper titles above the wing with large AMERICAN titles above the classic AA Eagle logo within a roundel. The 1930s eagle was actually quite complex and stood on top of a globe with a red sash behind it.

1945-1959: FLAGSHIP LIGHTNING BOLT

A 1946 timetable with the new Eagle logo

Postwar as DC-4s began to join the fleet American updated their Eagle logo removing it from the roundel it had been within previously and enlarging it. The Eagle now sat at the rear fuselage with two As either side of it and was pierced by the lightning bolt (red outlined in blue) that ran forward to the nosecone where it expanded and had AMERICAN text within it in black. Titles read as 'AMERICAN AIRLINES' on the fuselage with 'AMERICAN' low on the tail and the rudder. The rudder was partially painted the same orange red as the lightning bolt, although it seems not all aircraft had red on the tail at first. Each aircraft wore a Flagship name forward and the engine cowls had red flashing.

As aircraft joined the fleet with longer radar noses the red area of the radome increased and the AMERICAN titles moved from the cone to the side of the nose within the red of the bolt. As shown below on a DC-7:

1959-1964: JET FLAGSHIP

The first Lockheed Electras introduced a slightly modified version of the piston colourscheme. Essentially the scheme was the same however the orangey red rudder area was increased, which meant the AMERICAN titles cut through it. With the movement of the main passenger entry forward, the eagle logo was also moved forward. The AMERICAN AIRLINES titles were enlarged and spaced out. Aircraft still carried the Flagship names (but not the Convair 990s).

The 707s, 720s and Convair 990s were known as Astrojets from 1962 onwards and carried titles to that effect on the rear fuselage. AA referred to its 720s as 707s.

1964-1968: ASTROJET

In 1962 American undertook its largest image revamp in over 30 years pushed on by the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach. The centerpoint was a new logo featuring the double AA above American titles with the Eagle in between. All of this was set inside a white ellipsis with red outline. Although the new logo was adopted in 1962 the actual aircraft livery wasn't changed until the arrival of the first 727s in January 1964.

In 1964 the titles were streamlined and italicised and the lightning bolt simplified so that it finished in a point rather than covering the radome. The Eagle logo was finally moved to the tail. The official colours were 'international orange' and 'astrojet blue'. The aircraft were still called things like '727 Astrojets' or in the case of the BAC One-Elevens '400 Astrojets'. The design doesn't appear to have been well liked and was nicknamed "The Squashed Egg".

It was worn by the Boeing 707s, 720s, 727-100/200s, BAC One-Elevens, Convair CV-990s and Lockheed Electras. None of the Douglas props wore this scheme. Since the first 727-200s were only introduced in 1968 not many wore the 1964 scheme.

1968-2013: RED, WHITE & BLUE

The iconic 1968 scheme introduced in April was designed by the famous designer Massimo Vignelli. It kept the silver base colour but basically threw everything else out creating a modern and timeless livery that lasted longer than any other in the history of major airlines. If Vignelli had had his way then it would have been even simpler and a Boeing 720 (N7529A) was painted into a version of the scheme without the classic scissors eagle above the AA logo on the tail and without the white central band. Also modern at the time was the Helvetica sans serif font Vignelli logotype saying just 'American'.

As it was the loss of the eagle was too much for staff and it was redesigned into the scissors eagle that is so familiar to millions. This wasn't done by Vignelli however who refused to do it. Instead it was done by the office of Henry Dreyfuss. As you would expect from such a long serving livery there were variations during its career - mainly due to aircraft type but also due to branding.

1968-1970: Astrojets: From 1968-70 the airline was still calling its aircraft Astrojets (and in 1970 its first 747s Astroliners).

1971-1999ish: Luxury Liners

In 1971 the branding was switched to Luxury Liners. Titles like 747 Luxury Liner and DC-10 Luxury Liner began to appear on the aircraft. Following the well publicised issues with the DC-10s and the ORD crash the DC-10s simply became 'American Airlines Luxury Liners' - see the model below.

As aircraft became made of greater proportions of composites more painted light grey panels began appearing among the pure silver, especially the tailplanes of the 757s, 767s, 777s, MD-11s and F100s. Aircraft like the 737s and BAE-146s acquired from the AirCal takeover never received the Luxury Liner titles. Luxury Liner titles began to be removed from the fleet totally in about 1999. The 777s and 737-800s didn't wear the Luxury Liner titles.

Super 80s: American always referred to its MD-80s as Super 80s and these titles were carried by the aircraft for many years. The MD-80s had several livery variations based upon the radome colour, Super 80 titles, tail colour and tailcone type. For example the earliest aircraft had the black nosecone, Super 80 titles and a silver tail with the pointy tailcone as below:

The silver tails became light grey into the late 80s:

By the early 2000s the Super 80 titles were being dropped and the radomes were grey. Note also this aircraft has the screwdriver tail.

A300s: When A300s were acquired at the end of the 1980s they were light grey all over. Airbus does not provide matched aluminum skin panels on its aircraft and refused to do so for AA's A300 order. Therefore the aircraft were painted (what AA calls "Boeing Grey") prior to delivery and remained painted until the late 90s.

In the mid-1990's AA management was trying to decide which aircraft to retire; DC10 or A300. Ultimately the decision to retire DC10 was announced and two weeks later AA announced that Airbus was going to provide AA with matched & polished aluminum skin panels for its leased A300 fleet at no cost to AA. The decision appeared oddly timely!

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

Reno Air Hybrids

When American tookover Reno Air in 1999 much of the Reno MD-80/87/90 fleet wore a white hybrid version of the standard American scheme. Initially they had received quick AA titles but the full colours were applied, albeit with the unusual base colour, even though the aircraft were sold on quite quickly. The MD-90s even received Super 90 titles.

Retrojets

In January 1999 American took delivery of N679AN, a 757, which was painted into the first jet livery. She was repainted into standard livery in 2003.

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

In 2000 American took delivery of its 50th 737-800, N951AA, which was painted in the 1962 scheme. It was repainted into the standard new scheme in 2017 but another aircraft, N905NN was painted into the same colours (albeit there are minor differences).

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

2013-Present: Flag & Flight Symbol

In January 2013 American revealed its new livery by the design house FutureBrand. It includes a new 'Flight Symbol' which is intended to be an amalgamation of many of the elements of the 1968 scheme: the eagle, the letter A, the red, white and blue livery, and the star. American's name is now written out in a modern-looking custom-made typeface called American Sans. Obviously the aircraft are also now painted (there was little choice given all the composites used in modern aircraft) and American uses a silver mica paint to relate to the old silver.

American finished painting its fleet (and that of USAirways) in December 2017, aside from the MD-80s which have not been repainted.

Alan Wilson [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

Quintin Soloviev [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Heritage Jets

Following the merger with US Airways American has repainted various aircraft to represent liveries of its founding airlines. The A319s were already wearing retro colours with US Airways but have had their titles changed. The following aircraft in the fleet wear heritage colours:

Airbus A319s:

Allegheny Airlines (N745VJ)
America West (N838AW)
Piedmont (N744P)
PSA (N742PS)

Airbus A321:

US Airways (N578UW)

Boeing 737-800s:

American Airlines '1962' scheme (N905NN)
American Airlines '1968' scheme (N921NN)
AirCal (N917NN)
Reno Air (N916NN)
TWA 'twin stripe' (N915NN)