1976 marked the 200th anniversary of the US declaration of independence. The new nation wasn’t recognised by Britain, and the war wasn’t won, until after Yorktown in 1781, but it is the July 4th declaration that has become Independence Day. A wide variety of commercial products would launch tie-ins with the celebrations and what better canvas for a bicentennial image than a commercial airliner.
Planning for the Bicentennial actually began a decade before the date and events to celebrate started on April 1, 1975.
The Bicentennial included a bespoke logo which was selected by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (ARBA), in 1974 following a contest. The winning design was from the co-designer of the new (at the time) NASA logo Bruce N. Blackburn. The logo consisted of a five pointed star surrounded by patriotic striping. Interestingly I assume its official status meant that it couldn’t be widely used on commercial products and none of the Bicentennial livery variations used the official logo.
It is actually a little unclear why ONA, which in the grand scheme of things wasn’t a major US airline, decided to create not one but two celebratory liveries, but I guess why not? In fact initially it seems that only one scheme was planned. The livery was unusually designed by one of ONA’s New York based flight attendants, a Sharon Duker.
The scheme was as you’d expect very patriotic. It featured:
‘”flag blue” wings and basic red and white striped body and tail. A circle of 13 stars depicting the original 13 American colonies is illustrated on the tail, along with four large white stars on the blue nose of the plane and one additional white star on the front tip of the aircraft. Inscribed in bold white lettering on the side of the plane are U.S.A., the bicentennial dates “1776-1976,” and the christened name of the N1776R Independence.’
It wasn’t just the outside that was given a bicentennial theme as the interior gained red, white and blue headrest covers, plaques and a large colour photo of the aircraft exterior. The plane was rolled out of the ONA maintenance facility at Wilmington on May 16, 1975 and after a few days display was sent off on an extensive tour of national and international destinations.
The aircraft used was a 1960 build Douglas DC-8-32, originally delivered new to Northwest Airlines as N801US. She had also seen service with National (N7181C) and Spear Air (OH-SOB) prior to sale to Concare Aircraft Leasing and delivery to ONA in September 1974. The aircraft required major overhaul, which took two months and was repainted into the new colours over a two week period by around 100 employees.
The airline obviously got into the swing of celebrations as before she was rolled out ONA was already planning a sistership. Interestingly as the first DC-8 could be accused of wearing Yankee Northern colours the second scheme ‘celebrated’ or ‘commemorated’ the Southern States and could be said to be a confederate themed aircraft. Nowadays it is impossible to see such a livery being produced but I assume at the time the Civil War past was far less controversial?
Whereas the first DC-8 wore the independence year in its registration the second had the bicentennial year in its, and became N1976P. She was a former Eastern Air Lines DC-8-21 built in 1961 and operated by Eastern until June 1973. She initially kept her original registration as N8614, but was re-registered for the special occasion.
