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
numbers
12
years of work
131
aircraft models
3K+
Join us!
happy customers
posters
743
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.
My fight to restore my eyesight is over — this time my left eye was operated on. Now both eyes feel about twenty years younger. Both surgeries went successfully, with no complications. And although full rehabilitation still requires another month and a half of restrictions on physical exertion, and I’ll be under an ophthalmologist’s observation for a while longer, the doctors have already given me the green light to work at the computer.
I could see my posters again without straining — and it turns out they’re excellent! Before, I couldn’t fully appreciate that.
Now I’m making plans for the near future. A huge backlog of postponed tasks has piled up. It’s not just drawing new posters, but also tackling promotion on social media, in Google search results, and in AI recommendations. None of that happens automatically just because a website exists on the internet — you have to fight for every bit of it. On top of that, small business owners like us — my beloved wife and I — have to constantly keep learning all the intricacies of running a modern business.
We’ll manage — as long as we have our health. And on that front, we’ve made real progress lately.
I could see my posters again without straining — and it turns out they’re excellent! Before, I couldn’t fully appreciate that.
Now I’m making plans for the near future. A huge backlog of postponed tasks has piled up. It’s not just drawing new posters, but also tackling promotion on social media, in Google search results, and in AI recommendations. None of that happens automatically just because a website exists on the internet — you have to fight for every bit of it. On top of that, small business owners like us — my beloved wife and I — have to constantly keep learning all the intricacies of running a modern business.
We’ll manage — as long as we have our health. And on that front, we’ve made real progress lately.
Victory!
What to read?
This poster has every right to become a standout piece in any aviation poster collection. After all, it doesn't depict a gleaming, freshly-painted, ultra-modern airliner packed with onboard computers and satellite links. This print features the profile of a rare, vintage aircraft in the livery of a little-known East African airline. My work is dedicated to a legendary aircraft, a true veteran of the skies — the Douglas C-47 Dakota, in the livery of Indigo Aviation of Tanzania.
Against the backdrop of this aircraft’s impressive history, its final year of service with the airline is just a brief moment, flickering by like a spark. Having first taken to the skies in 1943, this plane finally found rest in 2010, in the brush not far from the airport in Dar es Salaam. This article and poster may well be the last mention of it.
Against the backdrop of this aircraft’s impressive history, its final year of service with the airline is just a brief moment, flickering by like a spark. Having first taken to the skies in 1943, this plane finally found rest in 2010, in the brush not far from the airport in Dar es Salaam. This article and poster may well be the last mention of it.
The Tanzanian Dakota
Hidden Messages Aboard Air Tahiti Nui
This is a story about, quite possibly, the most unusual livery in aviation history. You’d find this density of hidden messages only in the paintings of the great Renaissance masters, where every brushstroke carries meaning. Read on and see for yourself.
I drew the poster of the first Tahitian Dreamliner while the aircraft was still in the paint shop. To create it, I had to work from sketches and mockup photos. Then, once the first footage from the factory appeared — showing the painting process and the fully painted aircraft — I went back and made revisions to the work already done. Either way, the new Boeing 787 and my poster shipped off to Tahiti on the very same day. The plane, of course, arrived at its destination first.
As always, while drawing I got to know the designers' fantastic work up close. One by one, new layers of meaning revealed themselves to me in every brushstroke. I first wrote about this about five years ago and published it on not‑so‑popular site — I didn’t have my own platform yet at the time. Now I’ve completely rewritten the article specifically for the blog, adding extra information.
I drew the poster of the first Tahitian Dreamliner while the aircraft was still in the paint shop. To create it, I had to work from sketches and mockup photos. Then, once the first footage from the factory appeared — showing the painting process and the fully painted aircraft — I went back and made revisions to the work already done. Either way, the new Boeing 787 and my poster shipped off to Tahiti on the very same day. The plane, of course, arrived at its destination first.
As always, while drawing I got to know the designers' fantastic work up close. One by one, new layers of meaning revealed themselves to me in every brushstroke. I first wrote about this about five years ago and published it on not‑so‑popular site — I didn’t have my own platform yet at the time. Now I’ve completely rewritten the article specifically for the blog, adding extra information.
As always, there’s plenty to read. Head over to the Blog page for more aviation stories and new facts to discover.
Interesting facts
In this edition, I wanted to tell you about the very first poster we ever sold. It was an Airbus A320 in Finnair livery. That print didn’t look like our current work — back then I was still searching for my style. There weren’t yet three finish options, and even the print sizes weren’t fully settled.
Just as experienced businesspeople had warned us, we had to work for quite a while before that first sale, with nothing to show for it. For over a year we kept going, relying only on our belief that things would work out. We had to learn a great deal and discover entirely new areas of knowledge we’d never thought about before. Having started the project in June 2014, the first sale occurred only at the end of 2015. But we made it.
New times are coming, bringing new problems with them. And we’re facing these new challenges head-on. We’ll pull through — the way we always have.
Just as experienced businesspeople had warned us, we had to work for quite a while before that first sale, with nothing to show for it. For over a year we kept going, relying only on our belief that things would work out. We had to learn a great deal and discover entirely new areas of knowledge we’d never thought about before. Having started the project in June 2014, the first sale occurred only at the end of 2015. But we made it.
New times are coming, bringing new problems with them. And we’re facing these new challenges head-on. We’ll pull through — the way we always have.
Our Very First Sold Poster
Wanna Chat?
Sometimes life likes to throw us "surprises," picking the most inconvenient moments with special care. I’m sure many of you know the feeling of wanting to raise your hands to the sky and shout: "Do you really think I have nothing better to do right now than deal with this too?" That’s exactly what I did — and immediately got a couple more "pleasant surprises" in response. So, having learned my lesson, I quickly lost the urge to shout at the sky. Rolling up my sleeves, I started digging through the whole pile of problems, one by one.
It all happened less than a week before I was hospitalized for the second eye surgery. I’ll tell you about just one of these adventures, leaving aside the smaller tasks that had, of course, all converged on the same point in space and time. The first "signal" came on Wednesday evening: right before shutting down the computer, as I was saving an hour’s worth of work, Photoshop simply closed itself, sending that hour of work into oblivion. I sat there for a minute mentally tallying the damage. Realizing nothing critical was lost and that recovery wouldn’t take long, I exhaled and relaunched the program. After going through a few simple steps, I hit the familiar Ctrl+S again. The screen went blank — this time sending all the changes off into the void as well.
"I'll deal with it tomorrow," I told myself, and decided to shut the computer down for the night. But the surprises were only getting started. As I was finishing up, it turned out the text editors had joined the graphics editor’s strike. The minor annoyance was starting to grow. And then Thursday arrived.
The exact dates mattered a lot here, since the following Monday morning I was due for hospitalization. And once I got back from the hospital, my schedule would be planned down to the minute — the computer had to be in working order.
That Thursday, I didn’t yet know these would become days of deep brainstorming. After running through basic steps one by one — clearing temp files, removing recent updates — I realized the problem went much deeper, into the system itself. There were no specialists nearby I knew, and I hadn’t dealt with this kind of thing in so long that whatever knowledge I still had was thoroughly outdated. It turns out a system that’s run smoothly for years quietly erodes your own skills.
The solution came from an unexpected direction. My helper turned out to be an intelligence — albeit an artificial one. Since AI model developers don’t pay me for advertising, I won’t name them. After putting a couple of world-famous models through their paces to test the soundness of their fix suggestions, I settled on a third model. It’s barely known internationally, and in my country it often gets criticized. Nevertheless, it’s the one that solved the problem.
After going through possible causes and running a series of tests, the AI suggested the problem had crept into my OS user account. Working through the steps one by one, by late Thursday evening I finally got the system running again. Test runs of the programs showed the problem was gone. Come Friday morning, I had to start setting up all the programs from scratch. But from that point on, I was back in control — things were moving in the right direction.
This adventure wrapped up on Sunday, and on Monday I set off to deal with my eyesight issues in good spirits. Which mattered too.
It all happened less than a week before I was hospitalized for the second eye surgery. I’ll tell you about just one of these adventures, leaving aside the smaller tasks that had, of course, all converged on the same point in space and time. The first "signal" came on Wednesday evening: right before shutting down the computer, as I was saving an hour’s worth of work, Photoshop simply closed itself, sending that hour of work into oblivion. I sat there for a minute mentally tallying the damage. Realizing nothing critical was lost and that recovery wouldn’t take long, I exhaled and relaunched the program. After going through a few simple steps, I hit the familiar Ctrl+S again. The screen went blank — this time sending all the changes off into the void as well.
"I'll deal with it tomorrow," I told myself, and decided to shut the computer down for the night. But the surprises were only getting started. As I was finishing up, it turned out the text editors had joined the graphics editor’s strike. The minor annoyance was starting to grow. And then Thursday arrived.
The exact dates mattered a lot here, since the following Monday morning I was due for hospitalization. And once I got back from the hospital, my schedule would be planned down to the minute — the computer had to be in working order.
That Thursday, I didn’t yet know these would become days of deep brainstorming. After running through basic steps one by one — clearing temp files, removing recent updates — I realized the problem went much deeper, into the system itself. There were no specialists nearby I knew, and I hadn’t dealt with this kind of thing in so long that whatever knowledge I still had was thoroughly outdated. It turns out a system that’s run smoothly for years quietly erodes your own skills.
The solution came from an unexpected direction. My helper turned out to be an intelligence — albeit an artificial one. Since AI model developers don’t pay me for advertising, I won’t name them. After putting a couple of world-famous models through their paces to test the soundness of their fix suggestions, I settled on a third model. It’s barely known internationally, and in my country it often gets criticized. Nevertheless, it’s the one that solved the problem.
After going through possible causes and running a series of tests, the AI suggested the problem had crept into my OS user account. Working through the steps one by one, by late Thursday evening I finally got the system running again. Test runs of the programs showed the problem was gone. Come Friday morning, I had to start setting up all the programs from scratch. But from that point on, I was back in control — things were moving in the right direction.
This adventure wrapped up on Sunday, and on Monday I set off to deal with my eyesight issues in good spirits. Which mattered too.
Computer Adventures
We continue!
There isn’t much news this time. Last month, as I mentioned before, my right eye was repaired. Specifically, the lens in it was replaced. And all my previous concerns regarding the length of the recovery period and the ban on working at monitors turned out to be greatly exaggerated. The doctor who performed the surgery stated, to my immense relief: "You can work at a computer; the only restrictions are on physical activity, up to 5 kilograms." And since a computer mouse weighs no more than 200 grams, that means I can work! Nevertheless, I have slightly reduced the time spent at the computer; during the first two weeks, I had to get used to the new image. Or rather, not to a new one, but to a long-forgotten old one, like in my youth. And now I am enjoying the sharpness of my vision.
But another operation is coming up soon, this time on my left eye. Yesterday I learned the date—August 17th. As before, I will post a corresponding banner on the website. I hope that next time everything will go smoothly without complications or lengthy delays.
I now recall my pre-operative workdays with dread. Back then, I could barely distinguish the symbols on the keyboard, and I had to look at the monitor through a magnifying glass. Those I worked with back in January of this year surely noticed the multitude of mistakes and typos I made in those days. Thank you for your understanding and patience. I hope that now everything will be fine.
______________
What to read?
Il-14 — The USSR’s Last Piston Airliner
In the early fifties, this aircraft became the most popular on the country’s air routes. It operated regular passenger flights, served as the primary transport for exploring the planet’s polar regions, and served in the military. And although the An-24 turboprop regional jet, which appeared in the sixties, significantly pushed our hero off regular routes, the most remote and hard-to-reach sparsely populated areas of the Far North, the Far East, Siberia, and Central Asia remained under the Il-14's dominion.
P. S. I got acquainted with the Il-14 in 2015 thanks to a group of enthusiasts who restored two airframes to flightworthy condition. Over three days, I crawled over and studied this aircraft from all sides, taking many detailed photographs. These shots later became the basis for creating the model (template) for the posters.
--
Air France Boeing 747
Ten years ago, French carrier Air France bid farewell to its flagship, the Boeing 747, which had served the company for forty-six years. Its place was taken by other modern and fuel-efficient next-generation aircraft.
I have prepared a brief overview of the "Jumbo" era at Air France, from the very first to the very last flight. Here you will find information about the backdrop against which the giant emerged, the internal "competition" between the seven hundred forty-seven and the supersonic Concorde, and the restricted geography of flights due to limitations in favor of UTA airline—about the everyday work life of the huge aircraft until the day it was replaced by another, even larger and more modern plane. All aircraft go through these stages, but not all become legends.
______________
Interesting facts about the aviaposter project
64
For my computer to handle tasks related to poster creation, it requires a minimum of 64 GB of RAM.
Why so much? Not only because each poster is an image 12k pixels wide and 4k high. The source file for each poster is a highly multi-layered structure. A single file containing one poster and three background variations has 44 layers. At every final stage of preparing a set of posters, I have to work with two such files simultaneously. But that’s not the hardest part.
The heaviest file for the computer is the aircraft model. The image size is around 20k, with between 60 and 100 layers in Photoshop, depending on the complexity of the model and its options! These are the kinds of loads my computer has to endure!
I would like to have a newer computer with 128 GB of RAM. But given the current global prices for memory modules, that is unrealistic for now.
There isn’t much news this time. Last month, as I mentioned before, my right eye was repaired. Specifically, the lens in it was replaced. And all my previous concerns regarding the length of the recovery period and the ban on working at monitors turned out to be greatly exaggerated. The doctor who performed the surgery stated, to my immense relief: "You can work at a computer; the only restrictions are on physical activity, up to 5 kilograms." And since a computer mouse weighs no more than 200 grams, that means I can work! Nevertheless, I have slightly reduced the time spent at the computer; during the first two weeks, I had to get used to the new image. Or rather, not to a new one, but to a long-forgotten old one, like in my youth. And now I am enjoying the sharpness of my vision.
But another operation is coming up soon, this time on my left eye. Yesterday I learned the date—August 17th. As before, I will post a corresponding banner on the website. I hope that next time everything will go smoothly without complications or lengthy delays.
I now recall my pre-operative workdays with dread. Back then, I could barely distinguish the symbols on the keyboard, and I had to look at the monitor through a magnifying glass. Those I worked with back in January of this year surely noticed the multitude of mistakes and typos I made in those days. Thank you for your understanding and patience. I hope that now everything will be fine.
______________
What to read?
Il-14 — The USSR’s Last Piston Airliner
In the early fifties, this aircraft became the most popular on the country’s air routes. It operated regular passenger flights, served as the primary transport for exploring the planet’s polar regions, and served in the military. And although the An-24 turboprop regional jet, which appeared in the sixties, significantly pushed our hero off regular routes, the most remote and hard-to-reach sparsely populated areas of the Far North, the Far East, Siberia, and Central Asia remained under the Il-14's dominion.
P. S. I got acquainted with the Il-14 in 2015 thanks to a group of enthusiasts who restored two airframes to flightworthy condition. Over three days, I crawled over and studied this aircraft from all sides, taking many detailed photographs. These shots later became the basis for creating the model (template) for the posters.
--
Air France Boeing 747
Ten years ago, French carrier Air France bid farewell to its flagship, the Boeing 747, which had served the company for forty-six years. Its place was taken by other modern and fuel-efficient next-generation aircraft.
I have prepared a brief overview of the "Jumbo" era at Air France, from the very first to the very last flight. Here you will find information about the backdrop against which the giant emerged, the internal "competition" between the seven hundred forty-seven and the supersonic Concorde, and the restricted geography of flights due to limitations in favor of UTA airline—about the everyday work life of the huge aircraft until the day it was replaced by another, even larger and more modern plane. All aircraft go through these stages, but not all become legends.
______________
Interesting facts about the aviaposter project
64
For my computer to handle tasks related to poster creation, it requires a minimum of 64 GB of RAM.
Why so much? Not only because each poster is an image 12k pixels wide and 4k high. The source file for each poster is a highly multi-layered structure. A single file containing one poster and three background variations has 44 layers. At every final stage of preparing a set of posters, I have to work with two such files simultaneously. But that’s not the hardest part.
The heaviest file for the computer is the aircraft model. The image size is around 20k, with between 60 and 100 layers in Photoshop, depending on the complexity of the model and its options! These are the kinds of loads my computer has to endure!
I would like to have a newer computer with 128 GB of RAM. But given the current global prices for memory modules, that is unrealistic for now.
News #16
Wish me luck and see you soon
Ready-made posters from the catalog will be sold and shipped on time!
My eye surgery is scheduled for June 19th. I'm sure everything will be fine. But I won't be able to work with the new posters temporarily, the doctor will determine the timing.
The main thing is that the finished posters from the catalog will be sold and shipped on time! My wife Svetlana is doing this, and I will always be by her side.
Friends, hello everyone. I am in a hurry to report that my surgery was successful! And I have already started working.
Frankly speaking, I did not expect our medicine to have advanced so far. The future is here! It hasn't even been a week since the operation, and I'm already allowed to return to computer work. The vision in my "new" eye is like it was in my youth.
This time they "repaired" only my right eye. So now I am looking forward to the next surgery — on my left eye. Now I already understand what will happen and how, and that the break from work won't be too long. I will write about the date of the next operation here in the near future when it becomes known to me.
I want to add that for now I am still limiting myself in terms of screen time. Because of this, the turnaround time for orders will be slightly longer for now. Please be understanding.
New models and updates
New Feature Added! The Airbus A321F is Now Available
I had a premonition at the beginning of this year that I would soon be adding a new option to the Airbus A321 family: the A321F. I even started gathering photos, blueprints, and descriptions. So, when the topic of a freighter A321 came up in correspondence, I was fully prepared for the job.
The Airbus A321F is a Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) conversion. Its maximum payload reaches 28 tons, allowing for 14 container positions on the main deck and 10 on the lower deck. Developed by companies like Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) and 321 Precision Conversions, the A321F has become a favorite for regional express carriers and e-commerce networks.
The conversion is a complex, high-tech process that takes several months and is performed according to the strict regulations of the aircraft manufacturer and specialized centers.
First, all passenger cabin elements are completely removed—seats, galleys, lavatories, overhead bins, carpets, and decorative wall panels. Simultaneously, the In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system, kilometers of excess wiring, and the original thermal and sound insulation are dismantled.
A huge opening is cut into the forward left fuselage for the installation of the main cargo door. The area around the door is heavily reinforced with new frames (bulkheads) and stringers. The original passenger floor is replaced with a stronger network of beams and armored panels capable of supporting heavy pallets and containers. All passenger windows are hermetically sealed with special aluminum plugs (window plugs). The rear passenger doors ("Doors 4" L/R) are completely removed and the fuselage skin is closed up to make room for the 14th container. The forward doors are replaced with a simplified crew entry door.
Finally, a system of powered roller tracks and ball mats (Powered Cargo Loading System) is installed on the new floor for easy container movement. A rigid cargo barrier is installed right behind the cockpit, designed to withstand a 9g overload to prevent cargo from shifting into the flight deck during hard braking. The hydraulic systems are adapted to power the cargo door. The wiring is reassembled, and water, air conditioning, and ventilation systems are simplified. The cargo deck is equipped with an advanced smoke detection and automatic fire suppression system.
In the final stage, the aircraft undergoes hundreds of ground and flight tests. The correct operation of all reassembled electronic units, fire detection sensors, and cargo door hydraulics is verified. After successful trials, the aircraft receives a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) and is delivered to the customer as a full-fledged A321P2F freighter.
Fortunately, I didn't have to do all this with my model. Although some actions were similar: I closed unused windows and changed the fuselage paneling where doors used to be. I installed the cargo door and updated the crew door in the nose section, significantly reducing its size.
The Airbus A321F is now ready for your orders. I already have one order for this aircraft, which I will be able to draw after my eye surgery. So, I will have to be patient and wait a bit.
The Delayed Diamond DA40 NG
It so happened that the Diamond DA40 NG model is frankly stuck. The model is completely ready and can be used for drawing posters. It got stuck on its very first poster—my client and I simply cannot find data for the aircraft description. But this is a private case, so I decided to publish it in the "Airliner Gallery." The model should work.
The DA40 NG is the latest model, offered only on certain markets, powered by an Austro AE 300 engine producing 165.6 hp (123.5 kW) running on JET A-1 fuel. It was certified by EASA in April 2010. By December 2020, 500 NG series aircraft had been produced.
The NG series is just one modification of this aircraft. While working on it, I was simultaneously gathering photos for its other versions. So, expanding the DA40 line by drawing separate details will not be a difficult task if necessary. Place your order, and I will draw it.
What to read?
The Last MD-11
"On January 25, 2001, at the Long Beach plant, the very last MD-11 in history rolled out of the hangar gates,"—with these words begins the story of the fate of the last aircraft from the McDonnell Douglas family and the last wide-body trijet. You will learn about its journey, the challenges it faced, and where it is now from our blog article.
How Concorde Flew from London to Singapore
And how did it fly? This is a story about the difficulties faced by the idea of laying down an intercontinental supersonic route from Foggy Albion to the City of Lions. It turned out that this path was more complicated than initially assumed. And the obstacles were not only technical in nature. I talked about this in a new article on my blog.
Ready-made posters from the catalog will be sold and shipped on time!
My eye surgery is scheduled for June 19th. I'm sure everything will be fine. But I won't be able to work with the new posters temporarily, the doctor will determine the timing.
The main thing is that the finished posters from the catalog will be sold and shipped on time! My wife Svetlana is doing this, and I will always be by her side.
--
Friends, hello everyone. I am in a hurry to report that my surgery was successful! And I have already started working.
Frankly speaking, I did not expect our medicine to have advanced so far. The future is here! It hasn't even been a week since the operation, and I'm already allowed to return to computer work. The vision in my "new" eye is like it was in my youth.
This time they "repaired" only my right eye. So now I am looking forward to the next surgery — on my left eye. Now I already understand what will happen and how, and that the break from work won't be too long. I will write about the date of the next operation here in the near future when it becomes known to me.
I want to add that for now I am still limiting myself in terms of screen time. Because of this, the turnaround time for orders will be slightly longer for now. Please be understanding.
New models and updates
New Feature Added! The Airbus A321F is Now Available
I had a premonition at the beginning of this year that I would soon be adding a new option to the Airbus A321 family: the A321F. I even started gathering photos, blueprints, and descriptions. So, when the topic of a freighter A321 came up in correspondence, I was fully prepared for the job.
The Airbus A321F is a Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) conversion. Its maximum payload reaches 28 tons, allowing for 14 container positions on the main deck and 10 on the lower deck. Developed by companies like Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) and 321 Precision Conversions, the A321F has become a favorite for regional express carriers and e-commerce networks.
The conversion is a complex, high-tech process that takes several months and is performed according to the strict regulations of the aircraft manufacturer and specialized centers.
First, all passenger cabin elements are completely removed—seats, galleys, lavatories, overhead bins, carpets, and decorative wall panels. Simultaneously, the In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system, kilometers of excess wiring, and the original thermal and sound insulation are dismantled.
A huge opening is cut into the forward left fuselage for the installation of the main cargo door. The area around the door is heavily reinforced with new frames (bulkheads) and stringers. The original passenger floor is replaced with a stronger network of beams and armored panels capable of supporting heavy pallets and containers. All passenger windows are hermetically sealed with special aluminum plugs (window plugs). The rear passenger doors ("Doors 4" L/R) are completely removed and the fuselage skin is closed up to make room for the 14th container. The forward doors are replaced with a simplified crew entry door.
Finally, a system of powered roller tracks and ball mats (Powered Cargo Loading System) is installed on the new floor for easy container movement. A rigid cargo barrier is installed right behind the cockpit, designed to withstand a 9g overload to prevent cargo from shifting into the flight deck during hard braking. The hydraulic systems are adapted to power the cargo door. The wiring is reassembled, and water, air conditioning, and ventilation systems are simplified. The cargo deck is equipped with an advanced smoke detection and automatic fire suppression system.
In the final stage, the aircraft undergoes hundreds of ground and flight tests. The correct operation of all reassembled electronic units, fire detection sensors, and cargo door hydraulics is verified. After successful trials, the aircraft receives a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) and is delivered to the customer as a full-fledged A321P2F freighter.
Fortunately, I didn't have to do all this with my model. Although some actions were similar: I closed unused windows and changed the fuselage paneling where doors used to be. I installed the cargo door and updated the crew door in the nose section, significantly reducing its size.
The Airbus A321F is now ready for your orders. I already have one order for this aircraft, which I will be able to draw after my eye surgery. So, I will have to be patient and wait a bit.
The Delayed Diamond DA40 NG
It so happened that the Diamond DA40 NG model is frankly stuck. The model is completely ready and can be used for drawing posters. It got stuck on its very first poster—my client and I simply cannot find data for the aircraft description. But this is a private case, so I decided to publish it in the "Airliner Gallery." The model should work.
The DA40 NG is the latest model, offered only on certain markets, powered by an Austro AE 300 engine producing 165.6 hp (123.5 kW) running on JET A-1 fuel. It was certified by EASA in April 2010. By December 2020, 500 NG series aircraft had been produced.
The NG series is just one modification of this aircraft. While working on it, I was simultaneously gathering photos for its other versions. So, expanding the DA40 line by drawing separate details will not be a difficult task if necessary. Place your order, and I will draw it.
What to read?
The Last MD-11
"On January 25, 2001, at the Long Beach plant, the very last MD-11 in history rolled out of the hangar gates,"—with these words begins the story of the fate of the last aircraft from the McDonnell Douglas family and the last wide-body trijet. You will learn about its journey, the challenges it faced, and where it is now from our blog article.
How Concorde Flew from London to Singapore
And how did it fly? This is a story about the difficulties faced by the idea of laying down an intercontinental supersonic route from Foggy Albion to the City of Lions. It turned out that this path was more complicated than initially assumed. And the obstacles were not only technical in nature. I talked about this in a new article on my blog.
News #15
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