I've had this one actually sittin' on the hard drive for a while and now that I've upgraded my 737-800 blanks, it's high time to return to some livery redesigning. Before I talk a bit 'bout this livery, a little history lesson about Capital Airlines first.
Capital can trace its routes back to 1927 when Clifford Ball Airlines ran a mail route from Pittsburgh to Cleveland. In 1928 he started a mail route to Washington DC as well he called "The Path of the Eagle". In 1930 Ball got bought out and the airline was renamed Pennsylvania Airlines and in 1936 PA bought out two local airlines, Central and Kohler Airlines, and renamed itself Pennsylvania Central Airlines (PCA). The Pittsburgh-DC route was one of their most profitable and even before WWII they were billing themselves as "PCA: The Capital Airline" to showcase that route. DC-3s got added, then DC-4s were introduced in 1948 along with a name change to Capital Air Lines. Constellations were added in the 50s and DC-6s were picked up in 1960. Capital made history in 1955 when it added the Vickers Viscount to its fleet, making them the first turboprop operator in the US. Capital put them on the short-medium sectors and ate the majors for lunch. In 1959 the majors introduced the DC-8 and 707 and the Viscount was no match. By 1960 Capital was losing money fast and drowining in debt from ordering 60 Viscounts. No money was avaliable for jets to compete (they had 14 Comet IVs and 7 CV880s on order). With Vickers threatening to foreclose on the Viscount fleet, United came to the rescue and Capital was folded into United's operations in 1961. Incidentally, United fell in love with the Viscounts and kept them until 1969, when 737s replaced them.
Most historians agree that Capital would have made it as a niche East Coast carrier had they not ordered so many Viscounts and tried to go head to head with the likes of American and Eastern. If Capital were flying today, I see them as a business-class type airline much in the mould of Midwest Express or at least focused on business travel. To that end, I wanted a livery that not only reflected this emphasis, but also still hearkened back to its days as a Viscount operator. So clearly, there had to be an eagle somewhere on this plane!
And I think you can have a business-like livery without going Eurowhite or too dark like United's blah battleship grey or USAirways' stealth look.
Instead of going with red as the original Capital had on its aircraft, I went for a more burgundy/maroon color accented by a reddish gray and white. The eagle is still Capital's logo, but in a more modernized form on the tail. Given that Capital was very much centered around the Washington DC area, the star adds some patriotism but in a more subdued form with the pinstriping.
One of the sharpest looks amongst today's carriers is that of Qatar Airways. The use of gray on the uppersurfaces makes a nice contrast to an otherwise white fuselage and that formed the basis of this livery as well. The gray is more reddish than Qatar's to blend it more with the maroon of the eagle logo. I used it also on the tops of the engine nacelles as well.
Maroon pinstriping was used on the aft lower fuselage and repeated on the aft lower portion of the nacelles to break up the monotony of a white lower fuselage and to tie in to the tail logo. It also has a look of stylized bird feathers with a little imagination. Title fonts are in maroon as well, blocky but simple and angled to suggest speed.
Enjoy!
"By the Path of the Eagle"...if Capital Airlines were flying today....
No doute!
Capital livery
