PIA Boeing 747 at London-Heathrow Airport in 1988

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Abbas Ali
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PIA Boeing 747 at London-Heathrow Airport in 1988

Post by Abbas Ali »

PIA Boeing 747-217B (AP-BCL) at London-Heathrow Airport in 1988.

Note AP-BCL nose cone in unusual colour scheme.



Thanks to Umar Anis for the video.

Abbas
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Nasir
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Re: PIA Boeing 747 at London-Heathrow Airport in 1988

Post by Nasir »

Strange indeed! No other airline comes to mind whose nose cone is painted the same green as PIA that they may have borrowed in a pinch. It would be great to know the story behind how they ended up with an all green nose.
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Abbas Ali
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Re: PIA Boeing 747 at London-Heathrow Airport in 1988

Post by Abbas Ali »

Initially I thought that nose cone belonged to Boeing 747 of some other airline but that green colour on nose cone certainly matches with green colour of PIA livery sported by AP-BCL.

AP-BCL nose cone in this video reminded me of photos of PIA Boeing 720B, Boeing 707 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 that had very similar green nose cone. Probably someone at PIA paint shop experimented to see how Boeing 747 would look like with such nose cone ?

Here are example photos of PIA DC-10-30 and Boeing 707 with similar nose cone paintwork.

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AP-AXE with all-green nose cone - >>Click here<< to see large photo.

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AP-AYM with cheatline colours continued on nose cone - >>Click here<< to see large photo.

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AP-AWY with green nose cone - >>Click here<< to see large photo.

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AP-AXG with white narrow line separating golden cabin window line and green band wrapped around nose cone - >>Click here<< to see large photo.

Abbas
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Nasir
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Re: PIA Boeing 747 at London-Heathrow Airport in 1988

Post by Nasir »

Could it be that PIA found it cheaper to order the nose cones in a standard base color and then paint them inhouse upon arrival?

Ordering them in white would mean a strip down and repainting in order to avoid excess paint weight (I don't know if the manufacturers were able to send nose cones with just the primer and nothing else back then). I imagine it would be easier/cheaper to simply order the base green color and appy the white and gold cheatline as well as the black anti-glare. Then, I can imagine an emergency happening and PIA maintenence end up putting the cone as-is, without the detail work done...
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PK777
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Re: PIA Boeing 747 at London-Heathrow Airport in 1988

Post by PK777 »

Fantastic video! Never seen a PIA in 1980s colours this way before.

I really wondered what PIA was like during the 80s. I was barely walking when this was taken! lol
Nasir
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Re: PIA Boeing 747 at London-Heathrow Airport in 1988

Post by Nasir »

I was walking, and I remember a better PIA than what we have today. HOWEVER, I will stress, that even back then, people used to gripe about the PIA of days gone by...
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