British Airways 1960s-styled Boeing 747 flies to New York

Among the usual traffic taking off at London’s Heathrow Airport on Tuesday morning was an eye-catching blast from the past – a retro-painted British Airways Boeing 747.

The Boeing 747 – adorned in livery used between 1964 and 1974 – departed for New York’s JFK Airport, as part of celebrations marking the airline’s centenary.

The plane was stripped of its modern-day livery at Dublin Airport earlier this month, before being painted in the vintage British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) design, a predecessor to British Airways.

Large crowds turned out at Heathrow on Monday to welcome the plane, decked out in livery not seen for four decades.

The plane will keep flying in its retro BOAC design until 2023, British Airways said in a statement.

Tuesday’s flight retraces the first route a Boeing 747 took in BOAC colors.

Large crowds gathered at Heathrow to see the freshly-painted plane.

Enthusiasts can continue to follow the plane’s routes across the world using the Flight Radar tracker, which will feature a special icon of the livery.

“The enormous interest we’ve had in this project demonstrates the attachment many people have to British Airways’ history,” said the airline’s CEO, Alex Cruz, in a statement.

“In our centenary year it’s a pleasure to be celebrating our past while also looking to the future,” he added.

Centenary celebrations: 2019 will mark 100 years of international air services operated by British Airways and its predecessor airlines -- including Aircraft Transport and Travel, pictured left, which operated what's considered the world's first daily international passenger, mail and parcel service -- between London and Paris in 1919. Pictured here: Aircraft Transport and Travel poster by MB, 1919, and Imperial Airways by an unknown illustrator circa 1926.

Changing trends: 70-year-old Paul Jarvis, former Assistant Company Secretary at British Airways and now Curator of the BA Heritage Collection, has compiled a book of eye-catching posters from the past 100 years -- charting changing trends in aviation in advertizing. Pictured here: Imperial Airways poster by Steph Cavallero 1935 and Imperial Airways poster by Shurich, 1935.

Public appetite: "The posters have always been a particular interest of mine," Jarvis tells CNN Travel. "We have about 1,200 poster artworks in the collection, and a few other quite important artworks as well." Jarvis felt there was a public appetite for these posters and decided to put them together in a book. Pictured here: Imperial Airways poster by James Gardner, 1938, and Imperial Airways poster by Stanley Herbert, 1935.

Evocative images: Jarvis is the author of the new book: "British Airways: 100 Years of Aviation Posters," published by Amberley Publishing in association with British Airways. "There are so many evocative, gorgeous posters," says Jarvis. Pictured here: British Airways poster by unknown, 1936, and British Airways poster by Marshall Thompson circa 1936.

Stunning showcase: In the book, Jarvis showcases the posters and provides context about the story behind them. "The very early days it was very much just about persuading people to fly at all," he reflects. "There were quite a lot of people who thought flying [...] was just a passing fad." Pictured here: British Airways poster by unknown artist 1936, and BOAC and Qantas poster by Stanley Herbert, circa 1947-50.

Personal favorites: Jarvis says he can't choose a favorite poster in the book: "The front cover one I particularly like as an artwork in itself, by a very well known French artist Albert Brenet," he says. "But how do you choose, because there are many others like that as well." Pictured here: British South American Airways poster by Gwynn, 1946, and BEA poster by unknown circa 1949.

Stunning designs: In a book full of stunning posters, there are some designs that stand out including the image on the right. The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), one of BA's predecessors, used Walter Herz's original Olympic artwork to promote traveling to London for the games. Pictured here: BOAC poster by Abram Games, 1948, and BOAC poster by Frank Wootton circa 1952.

Explorations: Era-wise, Jarvis says the 1960s speaks to him from a personal level (that's the decade he started working at BA). "But from a purely [...] archival perspective it has to be the 1930s," he adds. "Because all the explanatory work that was [being done], new aircraft coming in." Pictured here: BEA poster by unknown, 1953, and BOAC poster by unknown, 1953.

Global world: In the mid-late twentieth century, international aviation became more and more common. "An explosion of air services from 1946 when we started operating to New York because aircraft now had the range to reach it," says Jarvis. Trips to South Africa and Australia also became possible. Pictured here: BOAC poster by Bernard Sargent, circa 1953, and BOAC poster by Laban circa 1953.

Cross-continental: These BOAC posters concentrate more on the destination than the aviation experience and were part of a series of posters released in the 1950s charting BOAC's cross-continental travel. Pictured here: BOAC poster by unknown, circa 1952, and BOAC poster by Eric Pulford, circa 1959.

Romance and escapism: By the 1960s, posters were becoming more photo-led to match the growing popularity of TV advertising. These BOAC posters promote the romance and escapism of traveling abroad. Pictured here: BOAC posters by unknown, circa 1960s.

Changing times: Jarvis says advertising has changed a lot since the golden age of travel: "It's so expensive to get print media out there, now, in any meaningful quantitative way, that reaches a wide audience," he says. "I suspect their heyday from the '30s,'40s, '50s, even the '60s, are probably long past and never will be repeated." Pictured here: BOAC posters by unknown, circa 1968.

New beginnings: In the early 1970s, BOAC and BEA merged to become British Airways, the airline we know today. Pictured here: British Airways poster by Foot, Cone & Belding, now Draftfcb London Ltd, 1974.

Concorde and club world: The early years of the newly re-branded British Airways celebrated the Concorde and the first fully flat bed for its Club World business class passengers. Pictured here: British Airways poster by unknown, circa 1976, and British Airways poster by M&C Saatchi, 2000.

Continued innovation: Jarvis says advertising may have changed, but remains innovative. Take the London Olympics posters, for example: "No one can say they're not creative -- they're very simple, digitized images of athletes and aircraft. I think they're beautifully done," he says. Pictured here: British Airways poster by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, 2012.

Vintage British Airways posters celebrate 100 years of aviation

Prev Next

As part of the celebrations, last year British Airways took a look back at its 1,200-strong collection of eye-catching vintage posters.

This historic hoard has been compiled in a book, “British Airways: 100 Years of Aviation Posters,” published by Amberley Books in association with BA and charting changing travel and advertising trends over the past century.

The book is the brainchild of Paul Jarvis, former assistant company secretary at British Airways and now curator of the BA Heritage Collection.

Many of the posters in the book are creations of British Airways predecessors – such as Imperial Airlines, BOAC and BEA.

British Airways, the company we know today, began operating in the 1970s when BOAC and BEA merged.

And BA isn’t the only airline celebrating in 2019.

The Netherlands’ Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij – more commonly known as KLM – and Spain’s Avancia have both been in operation since 1919 and will reach their 100th anniversaries this year, while Australia’s Qantas was founded in 1920.