Poster for Aviators
Poster for Aviators
Here you will get acquainted with my posters, which I drew and sent prints to pilots and fans of civil aviation around the world
Airliner Profile Scenic Posters are original artworks crafted for anyone eager to bring the spirit of aviation into their home or office, they demonstrate your connection to the boundless realm of heights and flight
Gift For Pilots
Our collection features a wide range of ready-made profiles of civil aircraft, adorned in liveries of airlines from across the globe, both modern and bygone. Dive into our blog, where stories of airlines and their winged machines come alive.
Every detail in our work reflects precision and realism, captured in lines and shades that embody the soul of flight.
Every detail in our work reflects precision and realism, captured in lines and shades that embody the soul of flight.
Want a unique backdrop? Order a custom airliner poster designed just for you. Seeking a personal gift? Add a custom inscription – a one-of-a-kind gesture for a friend or comrade.
Provide the aircraft’s registration number, and we’ll draw the very liner that lingers in your memory. Include a personal touch – a pilot’s name and rank, service dates, or a memorable flight route – and the poster’s title will make it truly yours.
Would you like your own poster?
Provide the aircraft’s registration number, and we’ll draw the very liner that lingers in your memory. Include a personal touch – a pilot’s name and rank, service dates, or a memorable flight route – and the poster’s title will make it truly yours.
Would you like your own poster?
Aviation, uniting the world
Aviaposter's collection
We have drawn posters for you
A plane takes you where the roads end, into a freedom that smells of fuel and clouds
Ernest Hemingway, writer
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129
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725
Posters Gallery
Get to know our posters!
Visit the gallery on the next page.
Visit the gallery on the next page.
e-mail:
aleksey@aviaposter.com
aleksey@aviaposter.com
All logos and trademarks on and around the image of an aircraft belong to their respective owners.
AVIAPOSTER.com
© 2014-2026 by Aleksey Rubtsov
All right reserved
© 2014-2026 by Aleksey Rubtsov
All right reserved
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Due to the complete blocking of payment systems in Russia, no payments are made from outside. The only way to buy these posters from outside Russia is to make a payment via a private link from my reliable intermediary through a payment service Revolut.me (any bank cards are accepted).
To make a purchase, select the poster (s) on my catalog, fill in all the fields in the shopping cart correctly. I will receive all data about your order and take you a payment link by email. After paying, I will ship your parcel and provide a track code. Since emails containing links to external resources often end up in spam, I ask you to check your spam folder to avoid this.
To make a purchase, select the poster (s) on my catalog, fill in all the fields in the shopping cart correctly. I will receive all data about your order and take you a payment link by email. After paying, I will ship your parcel and provide a track code. Since emails containing links to external resources often end up in spam, I ask you to check your spam folder to avoid this.
Do you know that running your own project when there are just two of you — my wife and I — is nothing like working in an office? There are no weekends in the usual sense, and excuses like "I don’t know how," "I don’t know," or "I don’t feel like it" simply won’t cut it. If it needs to be done, it gets done. You start and you do it.
There’s no boss to assign tasks, check your work, and hand you a paycheck at the end of the month. Every function falls on you. And the work isn’t just about drawing posters. It’s website maintenance to keep it visible online, preparing posts for social media and platforms, and constantly learning something new. It can feel like the tasks are endless, because life keeps throwing new challenges your way.
Today I want to talk about what we have to do to get noticed on the internet. The web is huge — it covers practically the whole world (for now) — making it an ideal place for a project like Aviaposter.
Our website is the main platform where people discover my work. I built it using a website builder. For us, that was more convenient than depending on an outside developer (we'd already had that experience). Here, I’m my own designer and editor. We lived like that for eight years, until politicians once again decided to "divide" the world. And one day, we simply lost our website. To say it was a shock would be an understatement. But as they say, a person can get used to anything — and so did we. We sighed, of course, but not for long, because otherwise there would simply be nothing to live on. Within a week we sketched out a plan and got to work on a new site. We solved problems as they came. A couple of months later, we launched it in a very stripped-down form, and then came a long, long period of filling the store with products and content. We finally wrapped up that saga last year with a major redesign.
Social media is a whole other story. At first I felt like a fish in water there — everything was clear and simple. But times change, and so does social media. These guys are constantly introducing new rules! Now they strictly regulate how images should look. You’ve just gotten used to one template — bam! — everything needs to be redone. In the past four months, I’ve already changed templates three times.
But social media isn’t just about images. Every platform has its own character, its own audience, its own topics. In some places, a bright image and a couple of words are what matters most; elsewhere, the audience likes to read long-form content. And these rules of the game are constantly changing too. That means you have to dedicate time to it and experiment. It all only comes with experience and learning. Twelve years ago, I had no idea any of this existed.
By the way, my responsibilities aren’t limited to the internet. I’ll tell you about that another time.
This year, our project turns twelve! There are still plenty of ideas in my head, and life keeps bringing new challenges. And you know what? This work will never end. And we’re very much counting on that.
There’s no boss to assign tasks, check your work, and hand you a paycheck at the end of the month. Every function falls on you. And the work isn’t just about drawing posters. It’s website maintenance to keep it visible online, preparing posts for social media and platforms, and constantly learning something new. It can feel like the tasks are endless, because life keeps throwing new challenges your way.
Today I want to talk about what we have to do to get noticed on the internet. The web is huge — it covers practically the whole world (for now) — making it an ideal place for a project like Aviaposter.
Our website is the main platform where people discover my work. I built it using a website builder. For us, that was more convenient than depending on an outside developer (we'd already had that experience). Here, I’m my own designer and editor. We lived like that for eight years, until politicians once again decided to "divide" the world. And one day, we simply lost our website. To say it was a shock would be an understatement. But as they say, a person can get used to anything — and so did we. We sighed, of course, but not for long, because otherwise there would simply be nothing to live on. Within a week we sketched out a plan and got to work on a new site. We solved problems as they came. A couple of months later, we launched it in a very stripped-down form, and then came a long, long period of filling the store with products and content. We finally wrapped up that saga last year with a major redesign.
Social media is a whole other story. At first I felt like a fish in water there — everything was clear and simple. But times change, and so does social media. These guys are constantly introducing new rules! Now they strictly regulate how images should look. You’ve just gotten used to one template — bam! — everything needs to be redone. In the past four months, I’ve already changed templates three times.
But social media isn’t just about images. Every platform has its own character, its own audience, its own topics. In some places, a bright image and a couple of words are what matters most; elsewhere, the audience likes to read long-form content. And these rules of the game are constantly changing too. That means you have to dedicate time to it and experiment. It all only comes with experience and learning. Twelve years ago, I had no idea any of this existed.
By the way, my responsibilities aren’t limited to the internet. I’ll tell you about that another time.
This year, our project turns twelve! There are still plenty of ideas in my head, and life keeps bringing new challenges. And you know what? This work will never end. And we’re very much counting on that.
Work That Never Ends
What is there to read?
In November 2019, a new aircraft – the CRJ550 – entered service with United Airlines. Externally, it is indistinguishable from its predecessor, the Canadian regional jet CRJ700. Nevertheless, it was officially recognized as an entirely new model and even received its own designation.
Interestingly, I received an order for a CRJ550 poster as early as February the following year, after it had made its first commercial flight – that was in 2020. And when this poster appeared in our catalog, it became the most popular poster on the very first day. It continues to be in demand to this day. Despite everything I've read on the subject of the CRJ550, I still haven't figured out the reason for this particular model's popularity.
So how was this new and final model in the popular lineup of Canadian regional aircraft created? Read about it on our blog.
Interestingly, I received an order for a CRJ550 poster as early as February the following year, after it had made its first commercial flight – that was in 2020. And when this poster appeared in our catalog, it became the most popular poster on the very first day. It continues to be in demand to this day. Despite everything I've read on the subject of the CRJ550, I still haven't figured out the reason for this particular model's popularity.
So how was this new and final model in the popular lineup of Canadian regional aircraft created? Read about it on our blog.
CRJ550
The Last of the Series
The Last of the Series
I'll admit right away – for a long time, the name of the branding agency "Landor" was associated in my mind with just one of their projects: the iconic British Airways livery of the same name. However, in the course of working on the Aviaposter project, I came across the name in connection with other airlines as well. Once I gathered all the liveries created by this agency in one place, I noticed one thing they all had in common – they're all stunning.
Further study of the agency's work (and not only in aviation) led to the writing of this article. Here, though, I look only at their work for airlines. And since this doesn't cover everything they've done, I may well write a follow-up in the future.
Further study of the agency's work (and not only in aviation) led to the writing of this article. Here, though, I look only at their work for airlines. And since this doesn't cover everything they've done, I may well write a follow-up in the future.
Landor
The Sky as a Canvas
The Sky as a Canvas
Author's Column
It's always wonderful to receive feedback on our work – it brings fresh inspiration and renewed energy. And that matters a great deal to all of us.
At the end of March, we received a new review from a customer on our "Boeing 767-200 BDSF ABX Air" poster, which had reached its destination. Here's what he wrote:
"I received the poster and finally have it hung in the office. I think it's an awesome piece – very detailed, printed on great poster stock, and it arrived very well packaged with zero issues. I'll definitely be ordering again at some point."
At the end of March, we received a new review from a customer on our "Boeing 767-200 BDSF ABX Air" poster, which had reached its destination. Here's what he wrote:
"I received the poster and finally have it hung in the office. I think it's an awesome piece – very detailed, printed on great poster stock, and it arrived very well packaged with zero issues. I'll definitely be ordering again at some point."
New Reviews
A couple of days before this issue went out, another review came in from the United Kingdom. Pilots often order posters with a personal title, and this was one of those cases. Here's what he wrote to us:
"I just wanted to let you know I have received the picture and I am very happy with it. It looks excellent."
"I just wanted to let you know I have received the picture and I am very happy with it. It looks excellent."
Order your posters and send us your reviews – we're open to communication and would love to create your very own poster.
How We Make Packaging for Shipping Posters
The other day we went to pick up foam cylinders. Anyone who has already received our prints knows exactly what I'm talking about. This is a story about how we faced challenges more suited to designing an aircraft — even though it's just a postal box.
The story of these cylinders began in 2019 with one failed delivery. Back then, we were shipping our prints simply rolled up inside a homemade cardboard box with a triangular cross-section. We chose that shape specifically to protect the roll from being crushed — everyone knows that a triangle is a sturdier structure than a rectangle. The only protection for the print was bubble wrap, but it couldn't shield the photo paper from deformation caused by the collapsing sides of the outer cardboard box. And then came another failed delivery — the customer received a crumpled poster. Sadly, this was not uncommon. The box showed no obvious external damage, but the poster inside was deformed. After studying the nature of the damage, we concluded that the poster had been crushed due to the stress loads that occur during transportation.
Unfortunately, it's not unusual these days for baggage handlers to show little regard for the contents of aircraft cargo holds. All sorts of short videos circulate online showing parcels being "expertly" launched into imaginary basketball hoops or football goals — and thankfully no one has thought to use baseball bats yet. Although, I probably shouldn't have said that — don't give the handlers any ideas!
And even though that particular customer didn't file a complaint, it was precisely then that we decided enough was enough — it was time to do something about the problem. We needed to come up with additional protection for the roll that would prevent it from being crushed.
The challenge was made harder by the fact that we were trying to keep shipping costs to a minimum, and the price depended on the weight of the parcel. Up to that point we had been staying within the "up to 250 grams" bracket, and any increase in packaging weight would push us over that threshold — effectively doubling the shipping cost. We tried a huge number of options, and every one of them meant we'd have to raise our prices due to the higher postage.
Then, just when we had almost given up hope, the solution appeared! While searching for a cylindrical core for the poster — a task my wife had taken on — she found the most optimal option: foam cylinders cut to our specifications on request. After contacting the manufacturer, she visited the facility and brought back several samples of different diameters and densities. After testing them in practice, we settled on the ideal size and placed our first order. And the most magical thing of all — the cylinder was so light that we had every chance of staying within our existing postage rate.
At the same time, I redesigned the cardboard box so that it could fit the cylinder with a maximum of six posters wound around it, all wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap. The first version of the packaging hit the target parameters almost to the gram. But then a new snag appeared: after sticking on all the required postal addresses, customs declarations, and stamps, the total weight exceeded 250 grams by a few grams. So we continued refining things — we reduced the length of both the cylinder and the tube by about five millimetres, and trimmed the width of the flaps on both end caps. Problem solved!
Since then, our tube has worked flawlessly. Over time we found another material for the cylinders, which freed up a few more grams. And the postal service updated its parcel documentation, so there are now far fewer stickers and forms to attach. Since then, we've had no further issues with posters being deformed from box compression.
______________
What is there to read?
A Short Note
I don't always have the time, energy, or skill to write long analytical articles with a cleverly crafted narrative. I'm more of an artist than a writer, after all. But often the subject I'm working on is so captivating that I feel an irresistible urge to share more than what fits on the poster. When researching the history of an airline, you start to understand the transformations it has gone through, and events sometimes reveal themselves from quite unexpected angles.
The two short stories published in the February blog appealed to me because unexpected — even seemingly illogical — events turned out to have roots stretching far back into the past.
An Unexpected Return
How did Singapore Airlines — known for its long-haul routes and a fleet made up exclusively of wide-body heavyweights — end up with a narrow-body Boeing 737-8 MAX? In any other context, this aircraft is positioned as a plane for medium-range routes. But among giants, it plays the role of a regional jet. And yet, this very airline once started out with the 737.
India's Premium Airline
In India, nothing disappears without a trace — everything is reborn in a new form. The country's first premium carrier is no exception. It no longer exists today, yet all of its aircraft are still in service, flying across the country and around the world. How is that possible, and how did Vistara end up as Air India's closest relative?
Read all about it on our blog.
______________
New Additions to the Catalog
New Works
February turned out to be generous — not just with snow and blizzards. New posters have appeared in our catalogue, most of which have already made their way to their new homes. These included both brand-new works and updates to existing posters.
Among the new additions to the project are two classic Boeing 737s — the Russian low-cost carrier Sky Express with its vivid, colourful livery, and another low-cost carrier, Helios, from the shores of Cyprus. Both operators have long since ceased to exist, but for those who flew on these aircraft, our poster is a page from their life.
The updates feature three aircraft. The British "Jumbo" — a veteran of the skies, once ruling the heavens; its place has now been taken by other giants. And two more... or one... or, actually, two. Two posters, two operators — but the same aircraft! Yes, that happens too.
Next up are already more posters, some of which are ready and will be published any day now. Details in the news on the Gallery page.
Full details on the "Poster Gallery" page.
______________
1. The British Jumbo
British Airways was once the world's largest operator of the Boeing 747-400, with a fleet of 57 aircraft. The "Queen of the Skies" served as the backbone of the airline's long-haul operations for over 30 years. But the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced the airline to retire its entire Jumbo fleet. The aircraft featured on our poster, G-CIVG, had already left the British fleet as part of a planned fleet renewal back in 2019 — four months before the mass retirement.
This poster first appeared on our website back in 2017. The current update marks its revival after nearly four years of absence.
2. Sky Express — Russia's First Low-Cost Carrier
The first fully-fledged low-cost carrier in Russia was Sky Express, founded in 2006. Its inaugural flight on the Moscow–Sochi route was operated by a Boeing 737-300 registered VP-BBN — yes, the very same aircraft depicted on our poster.
Interestingly, the original order that came in was for a poster of this airline, but with the registration N527AD. That's the same aircraft, but before it received its permanent Russian registration — N527AD being the seller's temporary registration. I completed the order and sent the drawing as requested, but decided to add the aircraft to the catalogue under its VP-BBN number. Incidentally, it wasn't just the tail number that needed changing — all the technical stickers and markings had to be updated too, as they differed significantly from the original version.
The version with the American registration is still in my files, so feel free to get in touch if you'd like this rare variant. N527AD is of particular interest to scale modellers, as a model of this aircraft was produced by the modelling industry. The main reason for the popularity of this registration is the Eastern Express 1:144 scale kit, whose decal sheet maker chose to include markings with the US registration. This version gained even wider circulation in the collector community thanks to JC Wings, which released a highly detailed 1:200 scale model specifically under the N527AD registration.
3. Helios Airways — Not the Luckiest Start-Up from Cyprus
I should say upfront — this is not the aircraft that became tragically famous! Our poster is dedicated to the very first aircraft in the Helios Airways fleet, which flew with the company for about a year before moving on. For someone, this particular aircraft was something special — special enough to order a poster of it as a keepsake. Was it the aircraft on which they took their first flight as a pilot? Or perhaps the one on which they first took to the skies as a passenger? Who among us doesn't remember their first encounter with the sky? Either way, these are warm memories — and I help preserve them for years to come.
4 & 5. One Aircraft, Two Lives
These two posters are inseparable, because they depict the same aircraft — just at different points in its life.
From its very first days, it flew in the livery of German cargo carrier Lufthansa Cargo. In those years it was beloved by spotters and aviation enthusiasts alike, and its registration D-ALCN was known by heart. Whenever the aircraft came into view of those in the know, there was a stir in the crowd — enormous lenses swung skyward, and an excited "It's him!" swept through the gathering. And no wonder, for this aircraft was the last MD-11 ever built, marking the end of an era of legendary giants. In 2018, it took its place on one of our posters.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, Lufthansa began hastily disposing of its ageing MD-11 fleet. D-ALCN passed to American carrier UPS and in April of that year received its current registration, N262UP. By the end of the same year, a new poster appeared showing the MD-11 in its new guise.
Following a tragic incident last year, UPS retired its entire MD-11 fleet, including the 262nd. Whether it will ever fly again remains to be seen. In the meantime, we have preserved it for lasting memory in our posters, which I recently updated.
The other day we went to pick up foam cylinders. Anyone who has already received our prints knows exactly what I'm talking about. This is a story about how we faced challenges more suited to designing an aircraft — even though it's just a postal box.
The story of these cylinders began in 2019 with one failed delivery. Back then, we were shipping our prints simply rolled up inside a homemade cardboard box with a triangular cross-section. We chose that shape specifically to protect the roll from being crushed — everyone knows that a triangle is a sturdier structure than a rectangle. The only protection for the print was bubble wrap, but it couldn't shield the photo paper from deformation caused by the collapsing sides of the outer cardboard box. And then came another failed delivery — the customer received a crumpled poster. Sadly, this was not uncommon. The box showed no obvious external damage, but the poster inside was deformed. After studying the nature of the damage, we concluded that the poster had been crushed due to the stress loads that occur during transportation.
Unfortunately, it's not unusual these days for baggage handlers to show little regard for the contents of aircraft cargo holds. All sorts of short videos circulate online showing parcels being "expertly" launched into imaginary basketball hoops or football goals — and thankfully no one has thought to use baseball bats yet. Although, I probably shouldn't have said that — don't give the handlers any ideas!
And even though that particular customer didn't file a complaint, it was precisely then that we decided enough was enough — it was time to do something about the problem. We needed to come up with additional protection for the roll that would prevent it from being crushed.
The challenge was made harder by the fact that we were trying to keep shipping costs to a minimum, and the price depended on the weight of the parcel. Up to that point we had been staying within the "up to 250 grams" bracket, and any increase in packaging weight would push us over that threshold — effectively doubling the shipping cost. We tried a huge number of options, and every one of them meant we'd have to raise our prices due to the higher postage.
Then, just when we had almost given up hope, the solution appeared! While searching for a cylindrical core for the poster — a task my wife had taken on — she found the most optimal option: foam cylinders cut to our specifications on request. After contacting the manufacturer, she visited the facility and brought back several samples of different diameters and densities. After testing them in practice, we settled on the ideal size and placed our first order. And the most magical thing of all — the cylinder was so light that we had every chance of staying within our existing postage rate.
At the same time, I redesigned the cardboard box so that it could fit the cylinder with a maximum of six posters wound around it, all wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap. The first version of the packaging hit the target parameters almost to the gram. But then a new snag appeared: after sticking on all the required postal addresses, customs declarations, and stamps, the total weight exceeded 250 grams by a few grams. So we continued refining things — we reduced the length of both the cylinder and the tube by about five millimetres, and trimmed the width of the flaps on both end caps. Problem solved!
Since then, our tube has worked flawlessly. Over time we found another material for the cylinders, which freed up a few more grams. And the postal service updated its parcel documentation, so there are now far fewer stickers and forms to attach. Since then, we've had no further issues with posters being deformed from box compression.
______________
What is there to read?
A Short Note
I don't always have the time, energy, or skill to write long analytical articles with a cleverly crafted narrative. I'm more of an artist than a writer, after all. But often the subject I'm working on is so captivating that I feel an irresistible urge to share more than what fits on the poster. When researching the history of an airline, you start to understand the transformations it has gone through, and events sometimes reveal themselves from quite unexpected angles.
The two short stories published in the February blog appealed to me because unexpected — even seemingly illogical — events turned out to have roots stretching far back into the past.
An Unexpected Return
How did Singapore Airlines — known for its long-haul routes and a fleet made up exclusively of wide-body heavyweights — end up with a narrow-body Boeing 737-8 MAX? In any other context, this aircraft is positioned as a plane for medium-range routes. But among giants, it plays the role of a regional jet. And yet, this very airline once started out with the 737.
India's Premium Airline
In India, nothing disappears without a trace — everything is reborn in a new form. The country's first premium carrier is no exception. It no longer exists today, yet all of its aircraft are still in service, flying across the country and around the world. How is that possible, and how did Vistara end up as Air India's closest relative?
Read all about it on our blog.
______________
New Additions to the Catalog
New Works
February turned out to be generous — not just with snow and blizzards. New posters have appeared in our catalogue, most of which have already made their way to their new homes. These included both brand-new works and updates to existing posters.
Among the new additions to the project are two classic Boeing 737s — the Russian low-cost carrier Sky Express with its vivid, colourful livery, and another low-cost carrier, Helios, from the shores of Cyprus. Both operators have long since ceased to exist, but for those who flew on these aircraft, our poster is a page from their life.
The updates feature three aircraft. The British "Jumbo" — a veteran of the skies, once ruling the heavens; its place has now been taken by other giants. And two more... or one... or, actually, two. Two posters, two operators — but the same aircraft! Yes, that happens too.
Next up are already more posters, some of which are ready and will be published any day now. Details in the news on the Gallery page.
Full details on the "Poster Gallery" page.
______________
1. The British Jumbo
British Airways was once the world's largest operator of the Boeing 747-400, with a fleet of 57 aircraft. The "Queen of the Skies" served as the backbone of the airline's long-haul operations for over 30 years. But the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced the airline to retire its entire Jumbo fleet. The aircraft featured on our poster, G-CIVG, had already left the British fleet as part of a planned fleet renewal back in 2019 — four months before the mass retirement.
This poster first appeared on our website back in 2017. The current update marks its revival after nearly four years of absence.
2. Sky Express — Russia's First Low-Cost Carrier
The first fully-fledged low-cost carrier in Russia was Sky Express, founded in 2006. Its inaugural flight on the Moscow–Sochi route was operated by a Boeing 737-300 registered VP-BBN — yes, the very same aircraft depicted on our poster.
Interestingly, the original order that came in was for a poster of this airline, but with the registration N527AD. That's the same aircraft, but before it received its permanent Russian registration — N527AD being the seller's temporary registration. I completed the order and sent the drawing as requested, but decided to add the aircraft to the catalogue under its VP-BBN number. Incidentally, it wasn't just the tail number that needed changing — all the technical stickers and markings had to be updated too, as they differed significantly from the original version.
The version with the American registration is still in my files, so feel free to get in touch if you'd like this rare variant. N527AD is of particular interest to scale modellers, as a model of this aircraft was produced by the modelling industry. The main reason for the popularity of this registration is the Eastern Express 1:144 scale kit, whose decal sheet maker chose to include markings with the US registration. This version gained even wider circulation in the collector community thanks to JC Wings, which released a highly detailed 1:200 scale model specifically under the N527AD registration.
3. Helios Airways — Not the Luckiest Start-Up from Cyprus
I should say upfront — this is not the aircraft that became tragically famous! Our poster is dedicated to the very first aircraft in the Helios Airways fleet, which flew with the company for about a year before moving on. For someone, this particular aircraft was something special — special enough to order a poster of it as a keepsake. Was it the aircraft on which they took their first flight as a pilot? Or perhaps the one on which they first took to the skies as a passenger? Who among us doesn't remember their first encounter with the sky? Either way, these are warm memories — and I help preserve them for years to come.
4 & 5. One Aircraft, Two Lives
These two posters are inseparable, because they depict the same aircraft — just at different points in its life.
From its very first days, it flew in the livery of German cargo carrier Lufthansa Cargo. In those years it was beloved by spotters and aviation enthusiasts alike, and its registration D-ALCN was known by heart. Whenever the aircraft came into view of those in the know, there was a stir in the crowd — enormous lenses swung skyward, and an excited "It's him!" swept through the gathering. And no wonder, for this aircraft was the last MD-11 ever built, marking the end of an era of legendary giants. In 2018, it took its place on one of our posters.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, Lufthansa began hastily disposing of its ageing MD-11 fleet. D-ALCN passed to American carrier UPS and in April of that year received its current registration, N262UP. By the end of the same year, a new poster appeared showing the MD-11 in its new guise.
Following a tragic incident last year, UPS retired its entire MD-11 fleet, including the 262nd. Whether it will ever fly again remains to be seen. In the meantime, we have preserved it for lasting memory in our posters, which I recently updated.
News #12
Diamond Da-40NG Almost Ready
In the seventh edition of the site news last November, in the piece "How a Poster Begins," I showed a sketch of the future model for the posters. No worries if you missed it — here’s a reminder.
Two months of work for something that isn’t all that complicated — that is a lot, of course. A combination of circumstances — the New Year holidays, a surge of orders in the first days of the year, and a slight illness in mid-January — all took their toll on the timeline. That said, there’s no need to rush. Cutting corners now will lead to a long chain of fixes and corrections down the road.
I know artists who take on drawing a model from scratch in three days. The result, as you can imagine, is not the best. For me, three days wouldn’t even be enough just to find and study photographs of the aircraft, figure out how many modifications there are, and decide which ones to draw first and which can wait. Finding photographs — especially of individual details — is quite a challenge in itself. There are spots on an aircraft that, as if by the will of some evil wizard, neither spotters nor professional photographers manage to capture — yet the detail still needs to be drawn. In cases like that, the search can take weeks.
There is an example of the exact opposite approach, where the task was to create an ultra-precise model of an airliner. The author became so absorbed in counting every single rivet that the model was never finished. After three years of titanic effort, he lost interest, never completing even the fuselage sketch, and never starting on the wings or engines. Whether the landing gear was in the plans, history does not reveal. Work was halted when every last tiny detail had been drawn on the fuselage — including details that would ultimately have been hidden by other parts of the airframe.
Neither of the two approaches described above is acceptable for a successful project. In the meantime, the Diamond Da-40NG project is nearing completion. Only the final touches remain: the model will receive its first livery and take its place on the poster. Right now I’m trying to piece together an idea of this particular aircraft from scarce — and often indirect — data found online. This time I had to bring in artificial intelligence. Our digital friend spent a lot of time and turned up plenty of interesting information, but there are still gaps in the story of our hero.
And yet, I hope that soon I’ll be able to present this aircraft — the one that became, for many, that very flying desk where young pilots took their first steps into the sky.
______________
What is there to read?
There Is Something to Read
Through the snowdrifts, through the bitter cold and the darkness of long nights, I’ve made it back to my blog. Now I have something to read again as evening rolls in.
A Living Legacy
I decided to open the season of '26 with a short article about the person in whose honor a Dutch airline Transavia aircraft is named. The idea was born the way many others are: I took on an order, studied the material, my eye caught a name on the fuselage, and I dove deeper. The research went beyond the scope of the order, but I got curious. That’s how this article came about.
Everyone called him John Block — though that was a pseudonym. Who was he, and why is a modern airliner wearing a retro livery named after him? Yes, John was no ordinary man — otherwise this aircraft wouldn’t exist. But that’s not all. In the course of researching online, some rather interesting names from the history of aviation surfaced — not only from the Netherlands. You’ll learn all about it in the new blog post.
Wings Over the Volga
At the end of last year, work began on a poster dedicated to the An-26−100 of the Kostroma Aviation Enterprise. This work was captivating and inspiring — after all, it’s an Antonov! Once upon a time, these aircraft could be spotted at any airport in the country; they carried millions of passengers across the nation. I’ve flown on one myself.
These days, not many airlines in Russia still operate this type of aircraft, and the small regional carrier out of Kostroma is one of them. It would be unfair to overlook the aviators of this small northern city, with its rich history and stunningly beautiful nature.
______________
New Additions to the Catalog
What’s New in the Catalog?
The catalog has been replenished once again. Two posters are updates from the series of revisions; two others are entirely new works. They’ve broken some drawn-out pauses. As usual, I’ll give a very brief preview here — for more details, read on the next page via the button below.
For nearly two months, my older works hadn’t been updated in the catalog, but the time has come, and I’ve redrawn the once very popular poster featuring a regional aircraft born as the CRJ700, but which later evolved into the CRJ550 — becoming the first aircraft in that series. The previous version of the poster will, however, return to the collection in due time.
Our collection hasn’t been added to with new posters featuring Canadian aviation for quite a while. This poster breaks that streak. It depicts the modern airliner Airbus A321neo of Air Transat, which is currently not represented in our catalog.
It’s not often that I get to draw aircraft from the African continent, but a new piece has broken that dry spell too. By the time I’m writing these lines, the file for this aircraft has already been sent to the print lab, and by the time you’re reading this, the printed poster will already be on its way… not to Africa.
An unexpected addition for me personally was the update to the old workhorse MD-11 of FedEx. Why unexpected? I started this work last year, but a string of urgent orders pulled me away from the process, and I nearly forgot about it. It was a note in my work plan that saved the day.
______________
Poster Additions (Page 2)
Seven years ago, I drew a poster featuring the CRJ550 of the American regional airline GoJet in its new United Express livery for the first time. For a while, it became the best-selling poster. We sold twenty copies in just the first day! But time flies, and it feels like it was only yesterday. Gradually the excitement died down, and the time came to refresh the poster.
In the previous version, the aircraft stood against the backdrop of the famous Gateway Arch, located in St. Louis, Missouri. Over time, sales experience showed that posters featuring landmarks have a limited audience — precisely because of their tight connection to a specific place. That’s why all new posters feature a neutral yet unique background. This doesn’t mean that scenic locations will disappear from posters forever. I’ve kept the St. Louis backdrop. It will be polished up and added to a library of landmark backgrounds that I’m putting together. Slipped up? Well, let’s consider it a teaser.
Now let me tell you about the second poster that joined the world aviation fleet of our Aviaposter project. As I wrote in the preview on the first page, it features an airline not currently in our catalog. I used that phrasing deliberately, because one Air Transat poster did exist within our project — but it’s currently set aside for an update, and it will be a special edition. But that’s a different story. Today I’m presenting the Air Transat poster with the brand-new Airbus A321NX. Its livery, flowing from deep blue to light blue and back again, seems to mirror the colors of the sky across different latitudes — from north to south — where the popular destinations lie.
The next two posters managed to "jump" into the news feed at the very last moment.
Say hello to the African giant — the Airbus A340−600 of South African Airways. We already have one A340 from this airline, but this time it’s the -600 variant on display. Every time I have to draw the six-hundred, its length makes me want to change the poster proportions, widening it from 900 to 1200 mm. It really is an enormously long aircraft! Unfortunately — or fortunately — the lab’s technical capabilities don’t allow for that without a loss in print quality. In the meantime, the printed poster has already set off on its journey across the ocean to the United States.
And finally, the fourth and last poster. It is the updated McDonnell Douglas MD-11 °F of FedEx Express — the patriarch of express delivery. I placed the livery of aircraft N596FE onto the updated model template, where I swapped out the set of highlights and refined a number of details. Then I drew a new landscape and sky. The result is an entirely new poster, which wrapped up the January work.
In the seventh edition of the site news last November, in the piece "How a Poster Begins," I showed a sketch of the future model for the posters. No worries if you missed it — here’s a reminder.
Two months of work for something that isn’t all that complicated — that is a lot, of course. A combination of circumstances — the New Year holidays, a surge of orders in the first days of the year, and a slight illness in mid-January — all took their toll on the timeline. That said, there’s no need to rush. Cutting corners now will lead to a long chain of fixes and corrections down the road.
I know artists who take on drawing a model from scratch in three days. The result, as you can imagine, is not the best. For me, three days wouldn’t even be enough just to find and study photographs of the aircraft, figure out how many modifications there are, and decide which ones to draw first and which can wait. Finding photographs — especially of individual details — is quite a challenge in itself. There are spots on an aircraft that, as if by the will of some evil wizard, neither spotters nor professional photographers manage to capture — yet the detail still needs to be drawn. In cases like that, the search can take weeks.
There is an example of the exact opposite approach, where the task was to create an ultra-precise model of an airliner. The author became so absorbed in counting every single rivet that the model was never finished. After three years of titanic effort, he lost interest, never completing even the fuselage sketch, and never starting on the wings or engines. Whether the landing gear was in the plans, history does not reveal. Work was halted when every last tiny detail had been drawn on the fuselage — including details that would ultimately have been hidden by other parts of the airframe.
Neither of the two approaches described above is acceptable for a successful project. In the meantime, the Diamond Da-40NG project is nearing completion. Only the final touches remain: the model will receive its first livery and take its place on the poster. Right now I’m trying to piece together an idea of this particular aircraft from scarce — and often indirect — data found online. This time I had to bring in artificial intelligence. Our digital friend spent a lot of time and turned up plenty of interesting information, but there are still gaps in the story of our hero.
And yet, I hope that soon I’ll be able to present this aircraft — the one that became, for many, that very flying desk where young pilots took their first steps into the sky.
______________
What is there to read?
There Is Something to Read
Through the snowdrifts, through the bitter cold and the darkness of long nights, I’ve made it back to my blog. Now I have something to read again as evening rolls in.
A Living Legacy
I decided to open the season of '26 with a short article about the person in whose honor a Dutch airline Transavia aircraft is named. The idea was born the way many others are: I took on an order, studied the material, my eye caught a name on the fuselage, and I dove deeper. The research went beyond the scope of the order, but I got curious. That’s how this article came about.
Everyone called him John Block — though that was a pseudonym. Who was he, and why is a modern airliner wearing a retro livery named after him? Yes, John was no ordinary man — otherwise this aircraft wouldn’t exist. But that’s not all. In the course of researching online, some rather interesting names from the history of aviation surfaced — not only from the Netherlands. You’ll learn all about it in the new blog post.
Wings Over the Volga
At the end of last year, work began on a poster dedicated to the An-26−100 of the Kostroma Aviation Enterprise. This work was captivating and inspiring — after all, it’s an Antonov! Once upon a time, these aircraft could be spotted at any airport in the country; they carried millions of passengers across the nation. I’ve flown on one myself.
These days, not many airlines in Russia still operate this type of aircraft, and the small regional carrier out of Kostroma is one of them. It would be unfair to overlook the aviators of this small northern city, with its rich history and stunningly beautiful nature.
______________
New Additions to the Catalog
What’s New in the Catalog?
The catalog has been replenished once again. Two posters are updates from the series of revisions; two others are entirely new works. They’ve broken some drawn-out pauses. As usual, I’ll give a very brief preview here — for more details, read on the next page via the button below.
For nearly two months, my older works hadn’t been updated in the catalog, but the time has come, and I’ve redrawn the once very popular poster featuring a regional aircraft born as the CRJ700, but which later evolved into the CRJ550 — becoming the first aircraft in that series. The previous version of the poster will, however, return to the collection in due time.
Our collection hasn’t been added to with new posters featuring Canadian aviation for quite a while. This poster breaks that streak. It depicts the modern airliner Airbus A321neo of Air Transat, which is currently not represented in our catalog.
It’s not often that I get to draw aircraft from the African continent, but a new piece has broken that dry spell too. By the time I’m writing these lines, the file for this aircraft has already been sent to the print lab, and by the time you’re reading this, the printed poster will already be on its way… not to Africa.
An unexpected addition for me personally was the update to the old workhorse MD-11 of FedEx. Why unexpected? I started this work last year, but a string of urgent orders pulled me away from the process, and I nearly forgot about it. It was a note in my work plan that saved the day.
______________
Poster Additions (Page 2)
Seven years ago, I drew a poster featuring the CRJ550 of the American regional airline GoJet in its new United Express livery for the first time. For a while, it became the best-selling poster. We sold twenty copies in just the first day! But time flies, and it feels like it was only yesterday. Gradually the excitement died down, and the time came to refresh the poster.
In the previous version, the aircraft stood against the backdrop of the famous Gateway Arch, located in St. Louis, Missouri. Over time, sales experience showed that posters featuring landmarks have a limited audience — precisely because of their tight connection to a specific place. That’s why all new posters feature a neutral yet unique background. This doesn’t mean that scenic locations will disappear from posters forever. I’ve kept the St. Louis backdrop. It will be polished up and added to a library of landmark backgrounds that I’m putting together. Slipped up? Well, let’s consider it a teaser.
Now let me tell you about the second poster that joined the world aviation fleet of our Aviaposter project. As I wrote in the preview on the first page, it features an airline not currently in our catalog. I used that phrasing deliberately, because one Air Transat poster did exist within our project — but it’s currently set aside for an update, and it will be a special edition. But that’s a different story. Today I’m presenting the Air Transat poster with the brand-new Airbus A321NX. Its livery, flowing from deep blue to light blue and back again, seems to mirror the colors of the sky across different latitudes — from north to south — where the popular destinations lie.
The next two posters managed to "jump" into the news feed at the very last moment.
Say hello to the African giant — the Airbus A340−600 of South African Airways. We already have one A340 from this airline, but this time it’s the -600 variant on display. Every time I have to draw the six-hundred, its length makes me want to change the poster proportions, widening it from 900 to 1200 mm. It really is an enormously long aircraft! Unfortunately — or fortunately — the lab’s technical capabilities don’t allow for that without a loss in print quality. In the meantime, the printed poster has already set off on its journey across the ocean to the United States.
And finally, the fourth and last poster. It is the updated McDonnell Douglas MD-11 °F of FedEx Express — the patriarch of express delivery. I placed the livery of aircraft N596FE onto the updated model template, where I swapped out the set of highlights and refined a number of details. Then I drew a new landscape and sky. The result is an entirely new poster, which wrapped up the January work.
News #11
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