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Qantas's Indigenous-painted 787 takes flight

written by Gerard Frawley | February 16, 2018

Qantas Boeing 787-9 VH-ZND at Boeing's Everett facility. (Katie Bailey)
Qantas Boeing 787-9 VH-ZND at Boeing’s Everett facility. (Katie Bailey)

Qantas’s fourth Boeing 787-9 has emerged from the paintshop and completed its first test flights as the clock counts down to the arrival of the aircraft with an Indigenous-inspired livery at a special welcome ceremony at Alice Springs in early March.
The aircraft, VH-ZND, broke cover at Boeing’s Everett facility on Thursday morning (US time) before completing a 90-minute flight to Moses Lake, according to flight tracking website Flightaware.
After about 15 minutes on the ground, the 787-9 departed Moses Lake for a 40-minute return journey to Everett.
The new livery is based on a work by the late Northern Territory artist and senior Anmatyerre woman, Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Her 1991 painting, Yam Dreaming has been adapted for the aircraft by Indigenous-owned design studio Balarinji.
The aircraft, which will be named Emily Kame Kngwarreye, will be ferried from Everett nonstop to Alice Springs for a special welcome event on March 2.
Twitter user @mattcawby also posted a photo of the aircraft on Twitter


As did @airportwebcams


The PWERLE Aboriginal Art Gallery posted a video of the aircraft on Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfPTDQhnyxz/?taken-by=pwerlegallery

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Comments (22)

  • John Reid

    says:

    Is there a pronunciation guide? I am not being facetious – I think that respect for the artist should be shown also by pronouncing her name correctly (or at least as close as white-fellas get).

  • john doutch

    says:

    A beautiful design, well constructed and a tribute to a wonderful lady, not only is her family justifiably proud, but so should all Australians, Ain’t it great, mate.

  • Stu Bee

    says:

    Just awseome

  • Scott

    says:

    Very nice, I like this artwork nice naming touch.

  • David

    says:

    Residents of Alice are the lucky winners here. They will be able to view ZND before most of the rest of Australia.

  • Darren

    says:

    Pretty nice design!

  • J

    says:

    Looks great well done to the artist and Qantas.

  • John

    says:

    Lovely artwork and name. Congrats to everyone involved. As an aside though, according to the report it takes two years planning to get to the finished product. This would mean using my very basic retired brain maths that Qantas never actually needed 8 new names for the Dreamliners’ first batch as “Dreamtime”was never going to “fly”……a superb substitute nevertheless.

  • Damon Lang

    says:

    Awesome design! Blends well with the new livery in my opinion.

  • Barry

    says:

    Agree with doing indigenous planes – look at the Qantas 747’s. but this looks like crazy paving gone wrong.

  • John Browne

    says:

    Great design. Best looking Squeezeliner I have seen

  • Jason

    says:

    Note the new tanker being fitted out in the background of the first photo

  • Australiana

    says:

    Looks absolutely great. The best of the indigenous designs I’ve seen on other planes.

  • Craigy

    says:

    A great design and it will make heads turn in Australia, USA and UK.
    @ John Perhaps the plan was to call the aircraft Dreamtime but then a decision was taken to name the aircraft after the artist. A fitting accolade. Similar to naming the A380s after famous Australians.

  • Tim

    says:

    QANTAS, kicking huge Australian goals with this design. Your new A330 airbus is already a smart design inside and this Dreamliner looks a world beater on the outside. Well done.

  • KFB

    says:

    Qantas nailed this. I am really excited to see it flying in our skies. Brisbane-Perth-London could be an option for the Brisbane based 787’s. @Craigy, I agree. This livery captures my attention the most out of any airline livery.

  • Jonathan

    says:

    ugly

  • Mike

    says:

    @Jonathan….by “ugly” I’m assuming you mean;
    Unique, Graceful, Lively, Yam-dreaming!
    I like it too!!
    In any way we can acknowledge the aboriginal heritage of Australia the better.
    Qantas has been doing this with successive unique aircraft designs for over a decade now.
    I’m looking forward to seeing Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s inspired artwork on the brand new B787-9 when it arrives DownUnder!

  • David Fix

    says:

    A very nice livery

  • Nicholas

    says:

    I think from a graphic design perspective it doesn’t really work. The design is too busy, and based on the picture doesn’t stand out at a distance.
    The other QF Indigenous designs have been so strong and striking that they’ve worked much better, irrespective of how far you were from the plane, which was one of their attractions.

  • Barry Holmes (ex F.E.O.)

    says:

    Does not match the “Magnificent”color scheme painted on Boeing 747-338 —VH-EBU which was “Nalanji Dreaming”.– Best colors ever on a QANTAS aircraft !!– It regularly was scheduled on the Japanese services to Tokyo and Nagoya and was an absolute “hit” with passengers. I,m sure many other QF Staff would agree with my comments.

  • James Smith

    says:

    Dot and the Kangaroo.

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