By late 1981 Braniff International was in severe trouble. Braniff’s President and Chairman Harding Lawrence had believed that airline deregulation would not be a success and decided that Braniff’s response would be to grow aggressively and build marketshare before re-regulation. The result was Braniff spent money like water on unprofitable expansion whilst at the same time being taken to the cleaners by its Dallas neighbour American Airlines. Add in a major economic downturn and things were not looking good. Even so Braniff still had time for its hometown football team.
Braniff had a long relationship with the Dallas Cowboys NFL team. They had flown the Cowboys to out of state games for 22 years and during that time they had flown them to 5 Super Bowl games, from two of which they returned as champions. In addition they had flown the team to 14 play-offs as well.
With the agreement signed for a 23rd year as the Dallas Cowboys airline Braniff took the opportunity to celebrate by painting one of its 727-227 Advanceds in a special scheme. The 727-227 Advanced had been the backbone of the Braniff fleet throughout the 1970s and with its massive deregulation push it had ordered large numbers of new examples. Between 7 and 9 were added each year from 1975-1980 before mass cancellations of the outstanding order book had become necessary.
The aircraft chosen for the special scheme was N457BN, which had been delivered new on June 13, 1978. As one of the newer 727s she wore the last scheme version Braniff introduced – the elegant, if rather spartan, Ultra livery, which had only been introduced in 1977. The Ultra livery introduced 8 different colour options as the livery base and N457BN gained Mercury Blue along with four other 727-227 Advanceds and a single 727-214.
At this point Braniff was still a successful airline with high yields, good loads and regular profits. By December 1981 Braniff was in a sorry state and Lawrence had been replaced by Howard Putnam, formerly of Southwest. Putnam had introduced what was called “Texas Class” to the fleet as a differentiator for the airline by removing First Class and replacing the whole plane’s seats with a new single class cabin with greater legroom, better catering and other frills.
This new luxury look and feel did little to make the airline profitable but did match with the Dallas Cowboys sporting aesthetic. Accordingly N457BN acquired a ten foot tall Dallas Cowboys silver and blue helmet on the tail (which always looked rather empty to me on a standard Ultra). Just below the cockpit a silver outlined rectangle with one foot high Dallas Cowboys titles within it.
The aircraft was rolled out and dedicated on Friday December 18, 1981 from the Braniff Operations and Maintenance Base South Hangar Ramp at Dallas Love Field. It was the first time that the airline had ever named any of its aircraft individually. Following the dedication ceremony the Cowboys boarded their jet and were flown to the last game of the 1991 season against the Giants. Braniff Chairman John Casey noted that:
“Braniff was very proud of its 22-year association with the Cowboys and looked forward to the next 22 years as the carrier of choice for America’s Team”
To say this was optimistic is an understatement! When the aircraft was not needed it flew on Braniff’s usual network and Cowboys Mugs were used for inflight service, with various souvenirs handed out onboard. The aircraft had a folder aboard discussing the dedication and a seating chart showing which seat each of the player’s used when aboard.
In actuality the aircraft was only ever used twice in the new season by the Cowboys, and they lost both games! The team already considered its Dark Blue Jerseys as ‘bad luck’ and the plane was considered jinxed by the players. Before the games the team were undefeated 4-0. There was talk of the 727 being repainted into another colour but by mid-May Braniff had run out of time. The airline closed its doors and N457BN was stored with the rest of the fleet.
N457BN went on to fly with the 2nd Braniff from March 1984 before, like many of her sisters, she joined Federal Express in 1990. She became N481FE ‘Tiffany’. She flew FedEx’s last scheduled 727 flight on June 21, 2013 and subsequently joined Southern Aircraft Consultancy as N727EL.
References
Coomer, S. 2016, December. The Rise, Fall & Post Mortem of Braniff International Part II: Ultra Colors, Ultra Problems
2015, December. Braniff History Today. Braniff Flying Colors. Facebook
2010, July. Blast from the past: Braniff’s Cowboys 727. Cowboy’s Zone.com
