Did you know - Virgin Used the Same Aircraft to promote New Attractions
For many people, aircraft are fascinating objects that grab their attention. Especially, the widebodies like the Boeing 747, which are massive in size, are admired by aviation enthusiasts and the general public alike. Hence, they make for an ideal option for mobile advertising. Virgin Atlantic capitalised on this opportunity by using one of its 747s as a mobile advertising board.
G-VLIP was the aircraft in question, which spent its entire career with Virgin Atlantic, as per data from ch-aviation.com. This 455-seater Boeing 747-400 joined the airline in May 2001 and was primarily used for high-density leisure flights across the North Atlantic Ocean for almost 19 years. During this time, Virgin Atlantic used the side of the aircraft's sizeable fuselage to advertise not one but two different blockbuster movie franchises.
Promotional liveries can add an interesting splash of colour to a normal paint scheme, and G-VLIP had two of them. The first one was the Harry Potter livery in May 2010, which stayed on the aircraft until February 2011, as per data from ATDB.aero. The livery was designed to promote 'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter' in Orlando. Interestingly, the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, the seventh of the franchise's eight films, coincided with the aircraft's paint job.
From Harry Potter to Star Wars, G-VLIP then received its second promotional paint scheme in September 2019, which it retained until Virgin Atlantic withdrew the aircraft in March 2020 due to the onset of coronavirus. The livery was Star Wars-themed, and Virgin Atlantic renamed the aircraft from 'Hot Lips' to 'The Falcon' in homage to the Millenium Falcon spaceship that features in several Star Wars films. The aircraft's fuselage looked impressive with the Star Wars livery, which commemorated the opening of the 'Galaxy's Edge' zone of Walt Disney World in Florida.
After storage periods in Spain and the UK, G-VLIP ended up further afield. Since December 2020, the jumbo has been in storage in Marana, Arizona. It has been around three years since Virgin Atlantic withdrew its Star Wars-liveried 747, and the 'Queen of the skies' now no longer plays a role in the carrier's operations.
