Wow. I'd kinda given up on this one!
I was
not expecting Panda to be company to make this. Based on earlier rumors I assumed Panda was working on a Ty-204 instead, and NG was
possibly considering the 134. Go figure.
I'm very happy and pleased to hear Panda have avoided any problems with Covid-19.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Transpac787
Interesting choice on the first release... I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that Aeroflot livery before.
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In the late 60's early 70's
Aeroflot trialed a number of schemes which were meant to result in a unified color scheme to be worn by all types. (Up to that point individual aircraft types tended to have schemes designed more or less specifically for the aircraft in question*, incorporating common features of course.) This blue tail scheme was applied to a number of aircraft of various different types (including Il-18 and Ty-154 at least) to gauge its popularity and check things like application costs, maintenance requirements etc and lasted for quite a few years even past the adoption of the universal 'billboard' scheme which was settled on in 1973. Despite this scheme losing out to the 'billboard' it was evidently popular enough that it almost made a comeback right at the end of the 80's when
Aeroflot once again considered updating its livery. The collapse of the Soviet Union put the kibosh on that plan.
So while it wasn't a 'standard' livery, it did exist on multiple aircraft for quite a few years. An interesting choice and one I'll happily snap up as soon as it hits the shelves.
Assuming of course it gets more reliable global distribution than previous Panda releases!
* This was the scheme for the Ty-134 when it entered service in the 60's
