1986 Boeing 737-400 - Thunderbird Special

One unique feature of FAST under Ford ownership was a series of special liveries which promoted various members of the Ford Family of Fine Vehicles. Ford primarily produced cars under the Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln brands and creative marketing executives tasked with turning around Ford's flailing auto sales, saw FAST's aircraft as large billboards with national reach. The Lincoln division was reticent to appeal to such a broad market for fear of diluting its brand value, but the Ford and Mercury divisions were not shy about plastering aircraft with advertisements for vehicles all up and down their model ranges. This phenomenon traced roots to a few special liveries back in the 60s and 70s but kicked into high gear in the 80s and reached its zenith in the late 1980s. By the 90s, though, much of the marketing department hype over special liveries had faded as surveys showed that special liveries were an extremely economically inefficient way of advertising.

One of FAST's 737-400s entered service in this livery and wore it for just over a year during late 1985 and 1986. It advertised what would pan out to be the last year of this Thunderbird as the 1987 model year introduced a styling refresh on the same platform. Further, it advertised the top of the range Turbo Coupe model and emphasized the supposed speed of the car. The checkered pattern invoked racing which was appropriate given this generation of Thunderbird had much NASCAR success. Checker patterns and racing themes were common, although certainly not universal, in FAST special liveries in the late 80s. A unique feature of this specific Thunderbird livery is the inclusion of the Thunderbird logo which was heavily featured in other Thunderbird advertising. The Thunderbird logo had been a hallmark of the line since its inception but it was an anomaly in so much as it was a specific Ford vehicle with its own logo.