As far as I’m aware none of the other US airlines went as far as ONA and Braniff to paint fleet members for the 1976 US Bicentennial celebrations and only three others applied any outward signs of participation at all. Which airlines were these? Interestingly all 3 were southerners including the 2 giants from Atlanta. I assume it was no coincidence that both of them decided to celebrate in style.
I should also mention that there were other ways to celebrate than painting your fleet. United offered special ‘Bicentennial rates’ giving special discount airfares on domestic routes over 750 miles. Passengers could save between 20 and 25% depending on season, although to access these did require a minimum stay of 7 days and a maximum of 30. In the 1970s I expect that was a good deal.
The two big southern trunk airlines, Eastern and Delta, also both celebrated the Bicentennial but in a lower key way than ONA. Eastern created a special ‘Historic Flags of America’ logo, which was applied as a sticker to their entire fleet. The emblem was ‘designed to portray the evolution of our nation’s flag’. It consisted of a series of US flags applied in rough date order in a circle with the text “…what so proudly we hail” inside with the addition of the years, all on a yellow background.
Seemingly the entire Eastern fleet would wear the logo throughout 1975 and 1976.
Delta decided to modify its traditional widget logo turning it into a stars and stripes widget with the text “WE THE PEOPLE…. 1776-1976” underneath it. The phrase obviously refers to the preamble of the US Constitution, although Delta also said it referred to the spirit of their own personnel. The widget was worn during 1976 although I’m uncertain how many of the fleet it adorned.
Certainly the Eastern and Delta strategies avoided any delicate issues with US history but it is the ONA DC-8s that are better remembered even if photos of them appear few and far between.
Lastly who was the third airline to adopt a fleetwide bicentennial logo? It was Charlotte based Piedmont, who interestingly also served Atlanta. I wonder if all three influenced each other?
Piedmont’s fleet wore a slanted striped flag with a roundel inside it which showed the Piedmont logo and the text ‘Piedmont Flies Where America Happens’.
You can see the logo worn in the below excellent shot of N754N taken by Bob Garrard leaving Chicago O’Hare in 1977.
Where there any other bicentennial celebratory liveries?
References
1975, April. Money Saving Travel. Black Enterprise
Star Spangled Delta. The Delta Museum
