Logos in the sky

Pionair aviation | Rebrand

Pionair Australia Convaiir VH-PDV taxis for take-off Brisbane airport, Queensland, Australia, 2007.

Pionair Australia Convair CV580 VH-PDV with it’s fresh new fluid livery and the red carpet out on the tarmac at the Osborne mine airfield, QLD, Australia, February 2007.

Composite air-to-air image of Pionair Australia’s Convair VH-PDV with her new fluid livery.

VH-PDW freighter arriving back at the bay in Launceston after some training.

The Southern DC3 landing at Omaka aerodrome, Blenheim, during the Classic Fighters Airshow 2011.

The Southern DC3 landing at Omaka aerodrome, Blenheim, during the Classic Fighters Airshow over Easter 2007.

Air-to-air shot of the Southern DC3. Image Credit. Gavin Conroy.

While working in-house at Pionair two opportunities presented themselves to individually design the livery for two aircraft types, the Pionair Convair CV580s and the Southern DC3. The Pionair Australia Convair livery was of two types, their passenger aircraft and fleet of Convair air cargo aircraft. The situation at Fieldair when presented with the “fluid’ design was that their engineers said that as it was “a compound curve on a compound curve” it simply could not be done. So I was tasked to apply the design to the aircraft myself.

The Southern DC3 brief was for a quality “retro” design to makeover the aircraft with the minimum of effort and cost.

As I had designed the logos for both of these airlines I extended my airline branding consultancy to correctly position the look of each aircraft type to fit their respective design led brand strategy. The Convair needed a concept that allowed for the vertical stabiliser graphics to be variable, to adapt to future private aviation contracts. The DC3 concept was much the same as the vertical stabiliser was a space being offered for sponsorship as part of the fund-raising drive and on-going earnings.

The experience of designing, applying and project managing high quality graphics to classic aircraft in the aviation industry has been a career high. I pride myself on being to respond to our customer’s requirements quickly and effectively and provide creative designs that are in keeping with the aircraft design period, custom designs that distinguish and enhance the aircraft’s look.

Experience with New Zealand’s leading aircraft livery facility Fieldair gave me the flexibility to produce bespoke self adhesive decals and spray painting stencils for each project. All paint and self adhesive products used are aviation rated, high performance, light weight and ultra durable.

Special liveries for classic aircraft

The Pionair Convair CV580 liveries are “Special liveries”. The Convair and the DC3 are both Classic and were used in unique circumstances, such as for private air charter operations, “affluent travel”, and fully escorted Private Air Touring such as the Circumnavigation of Australia or Photographic Safaris of New Zealand.

Bare metal is a design feature of the Convair aircraft liveries, this was first used during the 1930s and became synonymous with the advances to aircraft technology and the tremendous sales success of one of the first modern airliners, the Douglas DC-3. The DC-3’s sleek and shiny aluminum body, fuselage and wings symbolised the latest in streamlining aircraft for increased strength and air speed.