An exciting aspect of owning your own jet is choosing an exterior paint scheme to reflect your personal style and taste. The possibilities are endless and clients typically enjoy the process of selecting the paint scheme for their aircraft. Some owner’s design their own exterior paint concept, others ask their selected paint facility for their options, and some use a number of excellent exterior paint designers to design and customize a scheme for them. A jet is a big purchase and it is important to customize yours to maximize your enjoyment out of it.
An aircraft’s exterior paint not only serves to look great and personalized, but it also provides protection. The paint is a covering on top of the metal frame that helps protect the underlying metal from corrosion. It protects from rain and ice and sleet directly hitting the aircraft’s frame. (Note: Due to this fact, your team needs to keep an eye on the condition of your exterior paint because when cracks appear, water can seep in and cause corrosion problems.)
The majority of aircraft are white because white reflects light. Reflecting light means reflecting heat, and reflecting heat is one of the most efficient ways to keep the cabin cool. There are some aircraft with all black or dark exterior paint jobs. They look really cool, but the downside is the aircraft attracts heat because of the dark paint, and and too much heat causes the metal to expand which can create problems. It also can become very difficult to cool down the aircraft. Sometimes the APU is not strong enough to cool it down so either an engine has to be turned on to really blast the cold air or the aircraft has to be flown up to altitude to cool it down.
Keeping cabin temperature in mind, you can basically do anything you can dream of with the paint on the exterior of your jet. A paint job is a reflection of the owner’s personality and style. The most common paint scheme is all white with two or three stripes down the centre. This simple scheme is usually cheaper than an elaborate design motif that involves many colours and design elements. The one thing to keep in mind is that the more colours and intricate the design, the more it will cost mainly due to the man hours it will take to prep the aircraft for each layer. The paint job is done in multiple steps starting with stripping the old paint, applying an anti-corrosive primer with another primer on top of that, then the all-over colour, followed by each individual colour including masking for the design. So while you can and should get the exterior paint job that you desire, it is good to keep in mind that a more detailed scheme will take longer and more money. An exterior paint job can cost anywhere between $50,000 – $300,000 depending on the size of your jet and what your scheme is and the typical downtime is between 3-4 weeks.
For temporary, more detailed designs, there is the option to use vinyl decals. This is used frequently with music bands that are on tour and want their charter jet to have their name on the side or with a business who wants their logo on the side of their jet but do not want to go through the whole paint process to have it applied. Decals are an easy, low cost way to add a personal touch that you may not want permanent. They are temporary and can come off so they are not commonly used with big designs, but for a logo or smaller design it might make sense to look into.
On the whole, your jet’s paint job will not affect its resale value. We advise all our clients to personalize their exterior paint job to how they want it. The only caveat to this is that if your aircraft is a very bold colour or design choice, it may be more difficult for potential buyers to see past it if it is not something they like. For example, if you painted your aircraft all-over in bright pink, buyers may just see the “bright pink jet” instead of seeing it as a nice jet that they can repaint and customize to how they want it to look. So let your imagination go and design your jet in a way that makes you proud to walk out to it on the ramp.
Articles are written from real world experience by Colibri Aircraft’s individuals. If you have any questions or comments about the topic of this blog, please feel free to contact us at enquiries@colibriaircraft.com
