This post is triggered by a couple of (member) comments received about Braniff in my previous post on "Panagra" airline which stood for "Pan American-Grace" Airways. Of course, Braniff, in its own right, was a fascinating airline that has always piqued my interest from day one of my involvement in this hobby...

Braniff Airways, Inc. (otherwise known as Braniff International Airways) was a highly regarded and innovative airline that operated for more than half-a-century between the 1930s and 1980s. Through the 1970s, Braniff proved itself to be one of the most successful airlines in U.S., with their memorable campaign slogan "The End of the Plain Plane".... aka..."...We have blue planes, orange planes, yellow planes...You can fly with us seven times and never fly the same color twice..."...indeed it seems an extra-ordinary claim and a perfect sales pitch too...I've shown, below, all these 3 (blue/orange/yellow) colored Braniff planes...plus a few more colors. In all, fifteen (actually it was sixteen, see below) different (bold and exotic) colors were used to repaint the airline's fleet...! Long before the blue, red, and yellow B737s of Southwest Airlines (seen quite frequently these days right around here in this forum...) that currently dominate the skies over the U.S., there was this other (pioneering) airline that also flew colorful jets. The so-called "Jellybean" (Braniff) fleet carried such colors as beige, ochre, orange, turquoise, blue, yellow, and lavender etc. The iconic and famed “BI” logo on the tails and “BRANIFF INTERNATIONAL” on the fuselages, however, remained constant on all the liveries (see pictures below). Braniff's unique color-branded image-overhaul (in 1960s) was the outcome of engaging the combined and renowned services of (one each) an Architect, a Fashion Designer, and a Shoe/Leather Designer...a daring (corporate) initiative...unheard of in the era...

Interestingly, "Lavender" as a candidate color (included below are 2 images (#8/#9) of the "Lavender 707") was introduced, but then discontinued shortly after launch. It was due to the proximity of the shade to that of the Mexican witch moth (a symbol of bad luck in Mexican mythology), and United States-Latin America market been one of Braniff's primary expansion routes. Only one aircraft N7076, a B720 (a 707 derivative), was painted Lavender. Just one month later, however, it was repainted Dark Blue (see image #10 in my set) and the Lavender color was dropped. You may also search for "BRANIFF'S LAVENDER B707" for RW pictures of it and then decide for yourself if you happen to like this shade of color, not considering, of course, its (adverse) mythical (or marketing) significance...  

Braniff, with its miniscule origin, in June 1928, when two brothers began flying a (six-seater) Stinson Detroiter (SM-1) ("Eddie" Stinson's first monoplane) on scheduled service across rural Oklahoma, to the airline's eventual deployment of the Concorde, 50 years later, Braniff was a trailblazer. In its impressive historical fleet, you'll be hard pressed to find an a/c type that Braniff didn't operate...! (Now, when one thinks of Concorde, one naturally thinks of Air France and British Airways, but Braniff was the only US airline to operate the supersonic airliner, though at subsonic speeds, between Dallas and Washington. BTW, if you recall seeing pictures of Concorde in the Braniff color, those are artistic impressions, because the planes, though operating with actual Braniff Reg. numbers, retained their British Airways and Air France liveries). With its official beginning rooted in the (contractual) airmail service of 1930s, similar to most of the original U.S. airlines, Braniff would go on to compete with Pan Am and Panagra (see my previous post) for major route expansions especially into South America, and, in fact, would acquire Panagra in 1967. It would thereby acquire all the (pre-existing) Panagra DC-8-30s and also the (soon-to-arrive) stretched DC-8-60s, and then honor its Panagra heritage by using a/c colors with names such as "Panagra Yellow Jellybean", "Panagra Green Jellybean" etc. 

An extensive operator of diverse range of Prop a/c, in its early years i.e., during the more moderate pre-"The End of the Plain Plane" era, (see e.g., shots of Douglas DC-3 and Lockheed L-049, below, for vintage Braniff liveries), later on, in 1960s/1970s, it (predominantly) used the (colorful) Boeing 707s and 727s (a total of 130 727s... forming the backbone of Braniff operations...!). By the end of the 1960s, the company had become an "all jet" airline. The inventory also included the B747s and DC-8s (see 3 pictures (#11/#12/#13) of DC-8, below). In January 1971, the company had the honor of taking delivery of the 100th Boeing 747 ever made (its own very first 747 Jumbo). It was a 747-127 (N601BN), the original "Big Orange" Braniff Jumbo, called the "747 Braniff Place" (or "The Most Exclusive Address In The Sky"). It was deployed on (Dallas-London) Routes and was exactly of the same Reg. (N601BN), you may spot on the (last two) B747 shots I've shown below. This 747 served over 11 years with the airline, and departed only after Braniff's demise, in June 1982, when the airline operations ceased...(indeed, one of Braniff's special planes)...!!

Braniff's (unmistakable) colors were once familiar sights around the airports in U.S. and the world (as sometimes noted by members' recollections, around here), but today they exist only by name or in the collectors' memorabilia. Still, Braniff continues to capture the imagination of aviation enthusiasts around the world...Agreed, many of the designs and ideas might seem "excessive" in today's world of aviation, but, nonetheless, no one would deny that Braniff was an ambitious and big-dreamer of an airline...one of its mottos been, "If you've got it – flaunt it!"...Oh well...a bit "arrogant"...maybe...but deservedly so...

Hope you enjoy the pictures, below, of these Braniff a/c in Braniff's unique rainbow of colors...! (Please also note the 5 fictional DC-10 shots below, Braniff never operated any DC-10).  

Thanks for your interest..., and good flying...!!

Fantastic post Sir , as many liveries as the stews have uniforms : 

 

 

Cheers

John

Lots to see in your shots, P_7878

I could look at these (and similar) all day (and probably still not run out of aircraft types and color schemes). Lucky to have flown on Braniff at least once before its demise...a chocolate brown 727 out of Houston.

John

Edited May 28, 20224 yr by John F

Very nice set of shots! 😉 

johnb, bernd, John F, Alaska: Many thanks for the interesting comments...!!

 

17 hours ago, johnbow72 said:

...as many liveries as the stews have uniforms...

Yes, the crew uniform enhancements are another full story...and, sure, recall the video...🙂...

 

10 hours ago, John F said:

Lucky to have flown on Braniff at least once before its demise...a chocolate brown 727 out of Houston.

Yes, I do recall you mentioning that...in the past....🙂...in connection with one of my B727 posts....

Great pics P-7878, as allways !

cheers 😉

Here in Dallas we have Love Field, home to SWA and a very nice aviation history museum focused on SWA of course, but also has a great Braniff exhibit.

Here is the front page of the local paper after that fateful day...it was a terrible day for aviation, and can't imagine all the confusion/chaos it created for pax and crews world-wide that found them stranded wherever they were. 😞 

 

On 5/28/2022 at 3:51 AM, johnbow72 said:

Fantastic post Sir , as many liveries as the stews have uniforms : 

Could you imagine the reaction this woke generation would have if an airline posted a commercial like this today?

Yes, I agree its about as sexist as it gets and I generally don't agree with the sales tactic, but back in its day, almost completely acceptable.  Then again you had your Virginia Slims commercials touting that if your smoked this thin, sexy cigarette the men would be flocking all around you....oh my, how we survived that age is a mystery to me.   We rode in the back of station wagons with no seatbelts in the rear-facing seat, making faces at the driver behind us....Played "war" outside in the woods with sticks for guns (unless your family was "rich" and you had one of these:

 

 

9 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Great pics P-7878, as allways !

Thank you, pmplayer...!!

 

6 hours ago, Steve Dra said:

.... but back in its day, almost completely acceptable....

Yes, it was well received in general, but there were a few adverse reactions to it, looks like...and, of course, as you say, Steve, times were then certainly different...

 

7 hours ago, Steve Dra said:

Here in Dallas, we have Love Field, home to SWA and a very nice aviation history museum focused on SWA of course, but also has a great Braniff exhibit.

I had a chance to visit it many years ago, Steve....what I recall most, after pulling into the (busy) parking lot on a Saturday afternoon...was that Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 partially sticking out of the building...!  A very nice museum, indeed...