Although the wings should remain white due to worries about fuel temperature, Air France was given permission to paint the Concorde fuselage blue
One of the most recognizable aircraft to ever fly was the Concorde. But as part of their extensive “Project Blue” campaign, Pepsi commandeered one of the most illustrious Concordes for two weeks. The supersonic airliner experienced various issues as a result of the color change from white to blue.
As the informative video in this post describes, Pepsi Cola, a US company, had to rebrand its products significantly in the mid-1990s due to its market share in the soft drink market declining. As a result, it spent $500 million US on the project. So Pepsi began searching for a remarkable and effective way to promote its new brand identity and, in turn, increase sales. Ultimately, it was decided to use the Concorde in an advertising campaign.
According to ConcordeSST.com, Pepsi began requesting proposals from the only two Concorde operators, Air France and British Airways; Pepsi ultimately chose to work with Air France. This meant that the plane would need to be painted blue because the new Pepsi logo was based on the color blue. Concorde placed a great deal of importance on warmth because darker colors have a tendency to build, maintain, and retain heat longer than lighter ones.
The Concorde was only certified with a white paint scheme at that point, therefore Air France maintenance personnel had to get in touch with Aerospatiale, the French joint producer of the aircraft. The wings should remain white because of worries about fuel temperature, but they were given permission to paint the fuselage blue.
Although Air France was told to only stay at Mach 2.02 for a maximum of 20 minutes, there were no limitations placed on them below Mach 1.70. Air France was unconcerned because the plane was not scheduled to make a journey to New York or any other long sector.
The creation of a maintenance package, essential handling tools, ground equipment, etc. as for any unscheduled Concorde operation was part of the preparation. For maintenance availability, Concorde F-BTSD (c/nn213, dubbed “Sierra Delta”) was chosen. At the Air France maintenance facility in Paris, Orly, the painting process began in March 1996. The duties took 2,000 hours to complete and 200 liters of paint.
Despite the Pepsi blue paint job, Air France demanded that its name and the seahorse logo be kept close to the cockpit because Concorde was scheduled to be unveiled in British Airways’ backyard.
Since Pepsi wanted to save all the surprises for when it unveiled Pepsi Blue, the company decided to carry out the entire operation on this Concorde in secret. So that as few people as possible would be aware of the new paint job, Concorde “Sierra Delta” was wrapped in brown wrapping paper after it had been painted. It eventually left the hanger on Mar. 31, 1996, during the night, and was hurriedly wheeled to the runway where it took off for London – Gatwick (LGW), where Pepsi had intended to meet its guests for the special launch celebration.
The new beverage, Pepsi Blue, was introduced by Freud Communications at Gatwick Airport with the unveiling of a Concorde emblazoned with the color and logo of the product. Upon arrival, the Concorde was promptly towed to the hangar and prepared for the performance.
Yet, according to advertisements for the soft drink Virgin Cola in the British press, Richard Branson had allegedly learned about the advertising operation a few days before the new brand was introduced. There were a few newspaper pieces regarding an Air France Concorde that had been given a blue color scheme.
The show took place on Apr. 2, 1996, with the presence of Claudia Schiffer, Andre Agassi, Cindy Crawford, and hundreds of journalists invited by Pepsi for the event.
People’s reactions to seeing the Concorde in its blue livery were really surprising. Each flight attendant wore a unique pin made just for the occasion on their outfit.
A promotion effort for “Sierra Delta” then began in Europe and the Middle East. There were a total of 16 flights for the Pepsi commercial operation, including the ferry flights from Orly, and 10 cities were visited. Every voyage, excluding the first and last, would have been an opportunity to travel at a supersonic speed.
The promotional Flights
PHASE 1
Captain – Y. Pecresse
First Officer – B. Bachelet
Flight Engineer – A. Piccinini
31 March Paris (ORY)-London (LGW)
02 April London (LGW)-London (LGW)
03 April London (LGW)-Dublin (DUB)
03 April Dublin (DUB)-Dublin (DUB)
04 April Dublin (DUB)-Stockholm (ARN)
04 April Stockholm (ARN)-Stockholm (ARN)
04 April Stockholm (ARN)-Paris (CDG)
31 March Paris (ORY)-London (LGW)
02 April London (LGW)-London (LGW)
03 April London (LGW)-Dublin (DUB)
03 April Dublin (DUB)-Dublin (DUB)
04 April Dublin (DUB)-Stockholm (ARN)
04 April Stockholm (ARN)-Stockholm (ARN)
04 April Stockholm (ARN)-Paris (CDG)
06 April Paris (CDG)-Beirut (BEY)
07 April Beirut (BEY)-Dubai (DXB)
07 April Dubai (DXB)-Dubai (DXB)
07 April Dubai (DXB)-Jeddah (JED)
08 April Jeddah (JED)-Cairo (CAI)
08 April Cairo (CAI)-Milan (LIN)
09 April Milan (LIN)-Madrid (MAD)
09 April Madrid (MAD)-Madrid (MAD)
09 April Madrid (MAD)-Paris (ORY)
PHASE 2
Captain – G. Arondel
First Officer – P. Decamps
Flight Engineer – M. Suand
06 April Paris (CDG)-Beirut (BEY)
07 April Beirut (BEY)-Dubai (DXB)
07 April Dubai (DXB)-Dubai (DXB)
07 April Dubai (DXB)-Jeddah (JED)
08 April Jeddah (JED)-Cairo (CAI)
08 April Cairo (CAI)-Milan (LIN)
09 April Milan (LIN)-Madrid (MAD)
09 April Madrid (MAD)-Madrid (MAD)
09 April Madrid (MAD)-Paris (ORY)
Photo by Richard Vandervord via Wikipedia