[1]

Hybrid liveries are fascinating (see Steve D's post titled "Hybrids"). Such liveries can happen e.g., when an airline is leasing a/c from another airline but chooses to paint the leased plane only partially in its own color (leaving the rest in the color of the original airline). TUI/Thomson Airways/Sunwing is a great example of it. TUI (group) is a major shareholder in Sunwing, and also owns Thomson Airways and TUIfly, with 8 aircraft currently on lease to Sunwing. The owning entity (TUI group) is essentially sharing spare a/c capacity around these group of airlines, leading to interesting amalgamation of livery colors. Likewise, another airline, I came across, in the Freeware upload files for this week, is Flybondi, a low-cost airline in Argentina. It's acquiring 737-800 a/c from other airlines, e.g., the first one (LV-KAH) being, by coincidence, from Sunwing. So, during transition of color, the tail, engines and winglets will remain orange, until this Boeing 737 receives Flybondi’s full livery (see my images). Also, see below for one picture (the first shot below) of the Flybondi/Sunwing (hybrid) livery for PMDG 737-800, someone has painted. If you are curious, you may also search for "FLYBONDI LV-KAH 737-800 IMAGES" for additional pictures of it and examine the RHS and LHS faces of the orange tail of this (former) Sunwing Boeing 737-800.

What's interesting is that, during the transitory phase (with hybrid livery), the tail has markings as follows:

1. Bits of partial lettering for the first 2 letters of "sunwing" i.e., "s", "u", and the full symbolic Sun logo on RHS face of tail
2. Bits of partial lettering for the last 2 letters of "sunwing" i.e., "n", "g", and the full symbolic Sun logo on LHS face of tail

So, it's curious that the left-over (partial) letterings are seen only on the rudder part of the tail; the remaining letters on the vertical stabilizer part have been painted over. However, the Symbolic Sun logo, which is always on the vertical stabilizer part of the tail is left untouched i.e., not painted out... (same Sun logo left on the engines too) ...

And the yellow "flybondi" wordmark (only sign of the new carrier besides the Reg.) appears on the front fuselage (both LHS/RHS) of the hybrid livery.

[2]

Today, I also came across an Iran Air 737-200 repaint (for Milviz 737-200C) in the freeware library. Milviz 730-200, I recalled, was a unique product that had (properly) modelled a Gravel Kit system on the 737-200. A gravel kit is a modification on an aircraft to avoid foreign object debris (FOD) damage or ingestion while operating on unpaved surfaces. There was a time, Boeing offered an optional "unpaved strip kit" for its early 737 variants. Such kit-equipped 737s were once a common sight in Northern Canada (e.g., w/ Air North) and Alaska (e.g., w/ Alaska Airlines). Available for the 737 (-100/-200) from February 1969, the kit comprised a number of modifications that would allow aircraft to safely fly in and out of airports that only had unpaved runways.  

Two of the primary modifications (modelled by Milviz) are the following:

1. Nose-gear gravel deflector (shot #9, a curious device indeed): This keeps gravel off the underbelly and is one of the more prominent and noticeable parts of the kit. This is made of corrosion-resistant steel and has a sheet metal leading edge, which acts as an aerofoil to give it aerodynamic stability.
2. Vortex dissipators fitted to the engine nacelles (shot #10, look under the engine nacelle): Quite effective, this consists of a small forward-projecting tube which blows pressure regulated (55psi) engine bleed air down and aft from three nozzles at the tip to break up the vortices.

These enhancement kits, no longer available for newer jets in modern times, remain a curious segment of 737 aviation history, been responsible for bringing essential commodities and life-saving supplies, by air, for the first time, to some of the remotest (and coldest) corners of the world. BTW, please note, on the (highly flexible) Milviz a/c manager (Shot #6, below), I've enabled Gravel Kit and the Sperry 177 version Autopilot. SP177 autopilot with integrated FMC and automatics (the most advanced version available for the 737-200, see interior flightdeck shot, below), in 1982, became Cat IIIa Autoland capable, and has remained virtually unchanged through to the 737NG's.

[3]
This freeware, that I also came across this week, has a strange bearing on one of my recent posts. See my L-188 Electra bit of exchange with fscabral, in the post "Evolution of American Airlines "Eagle"...". It appears some folks, with interest in vintage, have recently (and coincidentally?) dug up fscabral's couple of (old) L-188 Electra repaints (see images below), plus the (base) FS KBT L-188 Electra model, to push these files into the Top Downloads List for this week...🙂...The PSA repaints were uploaded by fscabral in March 2010...more than a decade ago...! I see, in the README, he had not forgotten to add the customary, "Thanks for download and have a great flight!"...(BTW, Fabio, I didn't know what that description line text meant, "description=Å‘å„q‘¬“x ‚U‚T‚Q‚‹‚^‚ˆ ŽÀ—p㸌À“x ‚W‚U‚T‚T‚ q‘±‹——£ ‚R‚T‚S‚P‚‹‚"...🙂...)

Electra L-188 was the first large turboprop airliner built in the United States. After a couple of initial (and well-documented) fatal setbacks, expensive (structural) modifications were made to the airframe, which then made it an excellent a/c in terms of reliability and economics and sustained the use of the ones already in deployment, but, not for too long, though...since the jetliners (707/727/737/DC9) were just around the corner to supplant the (large) turboprops of the day. San Diego based PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) operated 9 Electras for over 20 years between 1958-1979. Below are a few pictures of two PSA liveries...the normal red/orange and a red/orange/pink. The massive and powerful Allison T56 Series (military grade) Turboprop Engines and Propellor blades (See e.g., 3rd shot from last, below), would also power the legendary C-130 Hercules. These engines were developed and tested by Allison with Air Force support. The Allison Engine Company proved itself good enough to later attract the attention of Rolls Royce and would be acquired by Rolls Royce in 1995. Rolls Royce touts this engine as the world's number one large turboprop.

The Lockheed Electra L-188 remains an iconic (American) turboprop of the yesteryear...with several samples still flying around today with Cargo and Air Tanker service operators...

Hope you enjoy the pictures of these repaints and these planes etc... from the freeware library this week...! Thanks for your interest...!!

Great set of shots! 🙂 

Alaska and James: Thank you...🙂...!!

Coollll ...nice to see some oldies from Fsx. From Milviz to KBT ...could be nice to see them back into MSFS. :)

***Wonderful Detail***

Quality post as usual Sir !! .

Beautiful shots , as i mention before, i like the classic birds!

cheers 😉

fscabral, Patrick, johnb, pmplayer:

Many thanks for the comments.... appreciated...!!

[And, yes, without occasional dose of the oldies and classics...🙂...life is not complete for some of us.... cheers...!!]