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..and now to Washington Dulles...to resurrect "the bubbles"...


tBBP

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..and the AFL keeps rolling along...

Before I continue to roll on, however, here's a quick look back:

American Airlines

United Airlines

Northwest Airlines

US Airways

Delta Air Lines

Southwest Airlines

Midwest Airlines

Continental Airlines

AirTran Airways

America West Airlines

Song

Air Canada

JetBlue Airways

So let's now--um...roll on.

Independence Air. Those who live near Dulles (or anywhere near the DC area) should know about this airline fairly well, it of the famed "bubblejet" livery. (Keep that idea in your heads.) The little airline that could...or thought it could, but ultimately, couldn't any more. Those of us airline types can go all day on the issues that doomed "Flyi", but since this is a sports logos/uniform interest community, I'l stay off that. I WILL, however, briefly go through the airline's story.

Flyi, as it (used to be) known for short, actually began life as another airline entirely--Atlantic Coast Airlines, a regional feeder carrier. (Several major airlines employ regional carriers such as this...examples would be Salt Lake-based SkyWest, a feeder for Delta and I believe US Airways, among others; and Chautauqua, which feeds Delta, USAir, and I believe United as well--I may be wrong, though.) Anyway, ACA was based out of Dulles, beginning in 1989. It served as a feeder primarily to United (which has a HUGE operation at Dulles) and Delta Connection (Delta Air Lines' regional arm). Anyway, to make a VERY LONG story very short, there were contract disputes between United and ACA, and in the ensuing blow-up of all that mess, ACA stepped out of the "feeder" category and re-invented itself as its own airline, and thus, the birth of Independence Air, with service beginning 16 June '04. Flyi introduced some pretty notable quirks to the industry, some of which are still in use today by other airlines, and customers loved it. It won itself its fair share of awards during its short life. Of course. this LCC (low-cost carrier--just like AirTran, JetBlue, and Southwest, and now US Airways) was a little different in that it primarily operated 50-seat regional jets, although later on in its life it acquired some bigger jets. The problem with that is that it costs more to operate a fleet or regional jets than it does with a fleet of bigger jets (or a mixed fleet) because the costs are spread over fewer seats (fewer # of seats/passengers = higher cost per passenger, just to give you a rough idea). Anyway, to make THIS long story short, a cost crunch ensued, and, though the airline fought to the very bitter end, even when it was hanging on by a tooth, it was forced to cease operations on 5 January 2006. It was a VERY SAD day across the whole industry (except maybe for United, their chief competitor out of Dulles and resident bully in the same vein), and I have NEVER IN MY LIFE been around employees who loved their airline as much as Flyi employees loved Independence Air.

Okay, so on to the concept...

First of all, for those who may not have ever seen a Flyi jet, take a good look at it now. (And it should become real clear how Flyi's planes go tthe nickname "bubblejet".) Yeah--I had a lot of fun tryna figure out exactly how to translate that into a uniform--so much fun, in fact, that it took me well over two months to finish it! But, a couple days ago, it all came together for me, and--I'l go ahead and say this now--this is by far the most unusual concept I've ever done (and yes, for those who peeped my Song concept--this one trumps that one in, uh, "uniqueness". For one, I actually found a way to translate those bubbles onto the jersey itself, and the idea for doing so came from the 1996 NFL Pro Bowl (and for those who don't remember what those looked like, now you know). Has anyone's brain started running wild yet?

You know what...I'm not even going to explain the rest of this concept...I think it'll pretty much speak for itself. I WILL say that I originally thought of the idea of going with an ACA throwback for the 3rd/alt, but knowing what I know about Independence Air, ACA, United, and the industry as a whole, IF this was a real league, that idea wouldn't have gon over well on the "Flyi team".

But anyway...here's my most unusual concept to date...Independence Air people!

Hoping I get some REAL GOOD C&C out of this one here...

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*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

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Ahhh...Independence Air. Memories.

Best airline I've ever flown, and this concept perfectly compliments their perfection in the airline industry (minus the whole bankruptcy fiasco with the high gas prices and all).

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Tomorrow's just your future yesterday.

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These kinda remind me of the mid-1990's era World League jerseys, my only critique is that white helmets might look better with these uniforms. Other than that, your usual awesome work!

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These kinda remind me of the mid-1990's era World League jerseys, my only critique is that white helmets might look better with these uniforms. Other than that, your usual awesome work!

...and trust me, I thought of that. As a matter of fact, my first couple drafts included the white domes. But in the end, just to really play off the "livery schematic", I decided to go with the (I guess this color blue would be) cerulean domes. I may not be done tinkering with this, although I really don't see what else I could do to make it look any better or more in-line with the actual livery itself...but time will tell...

By the way, thanks to all who've left me C&C thus far...hopefully there'll be more???

I got one more that's been sitting on the shelf along with this and my most previous concept unveiling (that being JetBlue)...and oddly enough, it shares the same color scheme (just about) as both that one and this one here! (it's amazing how many airlines share the same color schemes...) I'll see if anyone can guess what that one is...is may or may not be next to be unveiled, but I'll let you all have fun guessing at it though!!!

Oh--and if anyone else wants to contribute any more C&C to this one (or any of my previous ones), I'd gladly welcome it!

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

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I think it would look better if the front number was regular size. It doesn't look like a real football jersey more a soccer jersey. Just my 2 pennies.

Noted...I thought about that, too. I just wanted to do something a lil' mo' unique with this one, and after running across an onld mag with someone in the '96 Pro Bowl jersey, it just snapped into my head to follow that theme, especially in tryna find a way to incorporate the "bubble theme" here. Originally, that was going to be just the 3r/alt, but then I threw caution to the wind and just went with it.

I may do another draft of this and put it up, with minor tweaking...if so, you'll see it in a couple of days.

(By the way, new clue for you historians out there: the next airline concept to be unveiled in this series is also the world's oldest airline, as well. Guess away, peoples!)

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

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heh, looks like something that dumbass Scrim would do :D

I know the first thing I'd do if I was Scrim...basically, what you did...and then I'd throw in some color that only makes sense to Scrim. and then I'd put that lame hashmark watermark all over the whole thing, what with his crappy template...but then I'm not Scrim :D

okay, so I watch too much Mindfreak :P

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A strong mind gets high off success, a weak mind gets high off bull🤬

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