The Olympic Flame of Aviationtag!

Olympic Airlines was a Greek state-owned airline based in Athens, bought by shipowner Aristotle Onassis in 1956, who made it a successful airline boasting an impressive network of routes and strong fleet. The names of Olympic’s entire fleet were inspired by ancient Greece. The Airbus A340 planes were named after ancient Greek cities and the Douglas DC-6 planes after Greek islands, for instance. Like all the Boeings 747, our SX-OAD was part of the “Olympic Aircraft” category, rubbing shoulders as “Olympic Flame” with “Olympic Zeus”, “Olympic Eagle”, “Olympic Spirit” and “Olympic Peace”. From its very foundation in 1957, the airline has planned out and thought through its corporate identity down to the very last detail. Olympic was the first airline to have its flight attendant uniforms designed by famous designers like Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin. In January 2002 - before Olympic Airways became Olympic Airlines in 2003 and Olympic Air in 2009 ­- our Olympic Flame SX-OAD ­was retired and put on display Bruntingthorpe Museum until December 2020.

To begin with the aircraft was exhibited still sporting its Olympic Airways livery with the six coloured rings on its tail, but in 2006 as part of a marketing campaign the aircraft was painted in the colours of the British supermarket chain ASDA and given the fictitious registration G-ASDA. The plane was later redesigned again and whilst the tail of the plane remained slightly green, the rest of its new livery was removed. BBC has reported that British rock band Kasabian even played a secret gig on the plane in September 2011. After an exciting life spanning more than 41 years it was sadly the end and the Boeing 747 was scrapped. The cockpit has been preserved, though, and has been on show for fans to admire at the South Wales Aviation Museum since 4 February 2021.