#retired liveries

[runwayrunway]

No. 1 - Lufthansa

We begin with a large fish even by the standards of the large pond in which we operate. A very intentionally chosen large fish. Deutsche Lufthansa is Germany’s flag carrier and the second largest carrier in all of Europe by passenger volume. In 2018, they unveiled a new standard livery for their fleet of airplanes, and it...well. It’s this. 

Even the presentation - good lord, is this an auto show?

My feelings on Lufthansa’s 2018 livery are visceral. There’s no mental evaluation required, no taking it in, thinking about the choices made - I look at the modern Lufthansa livery and immediately, profoundly know that I hate it. And that’s not just because of the specific choices made - which are bad - but because of the space they occupy amidst a creatively barren wasteland within livery design. This is going to be a very long post, which isn’t standard for this blog, but my goal for an introduction is to break down exactly the sort of design that made me feel the need to start doing this to begin with. 

But in reality that’s only the beginning. Yes, Lufthansa’s livery is specifically disappointing, but it is so much more than that. It is the purest distillation of the greatest challenge aviation faces today, far weightier than scheduling issues, outdated IT, and runway incursions. It is not the worst example of it, not in the slightest, but it is a large airline which has a very textbook presentation of symptoms and thus feels like a great example to describe exactly what I hate about this sort of design. Let me explain. 

Essentially, airlines have found a formula. It goes as such: 

Almost entirely white body. (There is a name for this trend: Eurowhite.) In some cases, there may be a colour on the underside, generally either a light grey or whichever secondary shade the airline has committed to. In the case of this Lufthansa livery, it is just white. 

Aside from the white body there will be either a single colour (generally some dark blue, or less often some sort of red) or a few colours, usually but not exclusively on flag carriers to match their national branding. (The proliferation of red, white, and blue flags out there means that a disproportionate number of airline liveries are these colours.) Unless it is literally just a white plane meant to be as generic as possible for short turn-overs when leasing, it will at least attempt to have some sort of design, but it will be minimal, and:

All of the detail will be on the tail. There may be coloured winglets or engine nacelles, but other than that it is only at the rear of the plane that you begin to see any interest. Usually this is just a logo, though it may be an abstract design which looks like a default tumblr header. It will often only be on the tail, with nothing at all on the body proper.

The name of the airline written in a sans-serif typeface which is set as default on at least one word processor. Rarely will anything creative be done with this. It will (usually, except in egregious cases) match the impotent attempt at graphic design which has been confined to the empennage and it will have all the charm of a large retail chain’s flyer describing the benefits you’ll definitely totally get if you work for them - sickeningly corporate. Low-cost airlines may slightly vary the theme by putting their website onto the livery, either towards the back or just instead of the airline’s name. The brave will also write it on the ventral fairing, but most don’t even bother with that simple act. Some airlines have their name written in the language spoken in the country they’re based in, usually beside the English text, but most are only in English despite operating in countries where this is not the most widely spoken language. 

Not every livery which has these features is badly designed, as seemingly small changes can make all the difference. There is the occasional livery that fits most, if not all of these features that has some clever tweaks or design choices which makes me actually think it’s fine, acceptable, maybe even decent. (I have taken the initiative of making sure a few of these are among my early posts, just to demonstrate that it can be done). And some airlines depart from this entirely and come up with something even more hideous. Yet I somehow find myself respecting even these more than I do Lufthansa. 

The Corporate Standard Livery Design (Lufthansesque design, if you will) is - and I do not think I am being dramatic at all here - an epidemic. Taxiing through most airports, you sometimes have to actually try to tell the planes parked around you apart in the sea of red, blue, and mostly white. And I spend a lot of time looking at planes.  

These liveries do not only fail to inspire me. They instill in me a profound disgust. They are not trying to be good. They are trying to be what I described earlier - decent, not worth complaining about, because that’s cheaper and easier than designing something good. Graphic design is not anyone’s passion here. They’re just trying to toe the line. They’re so poisoned by the modern minimalist-design brain virus that they don’t realise that to be acceptable a livery this simple needs to do something interesting. There must be a creative decision made somewhere, a compelling feature, or you may as well be flying an MLA-formatted plane. In their striving for adequacy they become not just ambient, but lukewarm. They are a bottle of water which has sat in the sun for so long that when you drink it, even though you’re overheating and parched, it feels only negligibly better than the air you’ve been breathing in. 

To be fair, I do not only hate the Lufthansa paintjob because it exemplifies whatever-ness. Even in an industry saturated with gross in-flight nothingburgers served with some stale biscuits and a paper cup of Lipton tea, Lufthansa manages to offend in specific and unique ways. 

Throughout its long history Lufthansa has had a handful of different liveries, but from 2018 onwards this has been the situation. They’ve never been brilliant, but it’s only gotten worse over time. I normally would commit to a separate post for historical liveries, but in a move that I don’t foresee becoming particularly common I’d like to talk about the history and evolution of Lufthansa’s liveries from the golden age to now - the fall, if you will. 

(image: lufthansa bildarchiv)

Their early liveries were already pretty much plain white or metal, but they still had a few features that made them seem a bit less like photocopy paper which was meant to be printed plain blue but only got through a tenth of the sheet before ink ran out. To begin with, they used a lighter blue and combined it with a vivid yellow to add some actual visual interest. The layering of the yellow over the blue where it curves around and below the nose and on the ends of the tailplane actually draws the eye. The font choice is nice and legible, spaced apart in the center of the fuselage. I imagine it was easy to read even from far away. (Shame it’s a bit blocked by the wings from some angles, though.)

(image: lufthansa bildarchiv)

This early 707 design keeps the cheatlines extending past the nose but makes them sharper than the ones on the Connie to match the sleek profile of the jet. Back when this plane was painted adding white to your plane was a choice rather than the thing everybody was doing, which allows me to respect it for the choice it was instead of considering it the factory default. The bottom half, denoted by the cheatline, is left unpainted, which only adds to the sleekness of the overall profile, and the text is clear and plain but still aesthetically pleasing. The 707 is by modern standards pretty antique-looking; you can take one look at one and tell it isn’t particularly streamlined. This paint scheme, though, makes the plane look sharp and aerodynamic, despite not being revolutionary. I would go so far as to say I like this particular livery. This is, unfortunately, as good as it gets. 

Oh. Oh no...

Let’s assess the damage here. The cheatlines now simply meet at the front without wrapping down to the belly of the plane and the nose is a simple black tip. I like it when airlines paint their planes’ radomes, and I wouldn’t mind it here if not for what it was replacing. The font has been replaced with a generic sans serif font which is closely spaced and put up into a corner, like the name on a homework assignment - it’s not really part of the total package, just there for administrative purposes. Most upsetting to me is the tail. While I wouldn’t say I love the little section on the old plane, it at least felt like it belonged there, creating a second blue-and-yellow layer above the white. Its placement on the fin above where it begins to taper gives the plane a bit of an aerodynamic feel. It’s certainly not changing the world, but it feels at home in the livery. 

The new fin is a sharp downgrade. With nothing to mark the transition the fin abruptly goes from the white of the upper fuselage to a shiny blue which contains an enclave of the only yellow to be found on the entire aircraft. This makes the yellow stand out, as it has nothing to tie it in with the rest of the plane, and the fin itself feels almost like it’s been Frankensteined onto the fuselage from a different plane by a different airline. There’s nothing to mediate the transition from a block of white to a block of blue, like how the cheatline separates white and grey. It just is blue now, stop asking questions. This also means that the only part of the plane that the eye is really drawn to is...the tiny portion of the whole that is the fin, which may as well be floating detached in midair. 

This is foreboding. Knowing what I know now, it feels like looking back at when a romantic partner began to act strange years later, after the divorce, as you walk by the house he bought with his mistress. 

(image: g najberg)

The most recent, and only, time I flew on Lufthansa was in 2014 and was aboard one of their 747-400s. (Actually, if you’d still like to fly on a passenger 747, Lufthansa is basically your only option.) At the time, they looked like this. This is...just sad. They got rid of the cheatlines, because that’s trendy now, and they painted the whole plane white and made an attempt at lip service to the old metal lower half by painting just a bit of the plane grey, like if a human stepped into a puddle of paint that only covered the very sole of their foot. And I’m being generous by showing a 747, a plane which inherently makes any livery look less boring by being interestingly shaped itself, instead of the classic slightly pointy single-decker tube. Not to mention the double-decker design makes the text vertically centered instead of the default Lufthansa look of awkwardly shoved nearly all the way up the fuselage. 

In defense of the modern livery, it’s possible to argue it’s an improvement on this. Honestly, looking at them next to each other, it’s difficult to pick out which one I find less defensible. 

But then you see D-AIDV, an A321 painted in a heritage livery, and you feel the immediate, visceral “no!!! no go back!!!” as you remember that this is a false dichotomy and we could have something so much better if they weren’t peer-pressured into generic modern design. 

And for what? For this?

(image: hvdfonts)

For the third time, I remind you of what we have been reduced to. We have achieved a state of reductio ad absurdum where this barely qualifies as a design. This plane is more or less a white blot. You can put as many insets as you want and it is still a white blot. 

I am relatively sure that the font used is literally Helvetica. EDIT: I have been informed that it is not, in fact, Helvetica, but a custom typeface that happens to look almost exactly like Helvetica. This is, in my own opinion, worse! They did apparently use Helvetica in the past, though. Here is a very detailed description of the design process of the font, which manages to contain a grand total of zero ideas. 

I would hate this on its own already, but it’s also so closely spaced and located so far up that it makes me feel like I’m suffocating. In my own experience as a dyslexic person, kerning is the single weightiest feature when it comes to if I can easily read something or not. While Helvetica, ugly though it may be, is generally considered a very legible font, any benefits from that are more than cancelled out by committing to making sure the entire name of the airline fits between the frontmost two doors with room to spare. It feels almost hostile.

Now, all given, I at least somewhat enjoy the shade of blue used for this livery, which is darker than the normal fare. I do miss the way the grey broke up the endless white space, though, and I mourn the yellow even more - in addition to being something to look at, losing it has also lost any visible reference to the flag of Germany, the country for which Lufthansa is the flag carrier. They don’t even have the black part of the German flag despite that being basically free. If they went for black instead of dark blue I would honestly respect this a hell of a lot more. One of the most recognizable flags in the world and instead your airline looks like a discount SAS.  

Yeah, I said it. If we want to go even further with comparisons by including airlines that aren’t Lufthansa, this is basically the SAS livery. Except not, because the SAS livery does a lot that this doesn’t. 

This is about Lufthansa, not SAS. I’ll look at SAS soon enough, because comparing their look to Lufthansa’s has made me appreciate it in a way I never used to. But I don’t think I need to elaborate too much for it to be clear why SAS’s livery works and Lufthansa’s doesn’t, despite the superficial similarities. SAS took their absolutely horrid previous livery and turned it into something which might not wow anyone but at least feels uniquely theirs, while Lufthansa had something which accomplished much the same and then diluted it into nothingness, Eurowhite writ large. Two washes and you’d wonder if your Lufthansa flight is actually a Smartlynx lease.  

The way that the blue slices into the bottom of the fuselage and doesn’t fully cover the tailfin is...something? It’s a design element. It’s not nearly enough to save it, but it’s a design element. However, this presents another issue specific to Lufthansa’s paint job, best demonstrated with a specific plane: 

(image: lufthansa)

Lufthansa is the world’s largest operator of the Airbus A340, a somewhat eccentric airplane which is perhaps best thought of as a four-engined A330. I love this airplane, and am delighted seeing it overhead on my walk home from work, because Lufthansa is kind enough to operate a daily service with it to my home airport, but that’s beside the point. The point is this: what I have pictured is specifically the A340-600, which is the world’s second longest in-service airliner. Yes, longer than the A380 and the 747-400, and, in fact, only shorter than the 747-800. With a plane this long, the Lufthansa livery creates an incredible look of rear-heaviness. This plane looks like it should uncontrollably pitch up until it’s perpendicular to the ground every time it takes off. Of course this effect is less pronounced on shorter aircraft, but it’s still there, and I dislike it. 

You can barely even tell there’s paint at all on a much smaller plane! And the white bit on the front of the rudder which looks okay on a conventional empennage looks downright horrible when it’s only on the very tip of the t-tail’s forward point. 

Oh, and when you take the windows out for a freighter conversion it gets even worse. 

This is a generic-brand airplane. It genuinely reminds me of generic branding. There is a specific brand that has this exact appearance and I can’t remember what it is but it’s right there and I’m fairly sure I’ve seen it at CVS. I don’t think that’s what you want to go for when designing an airline livery, especially for an airline representing a country, but if Lufthansa wasn’t going for that they’ve failed. 

                  __________________________________________

Overall, Lufthansa’s livery is superbly boring and not terribly well thought out. It’s not worth this absolute dissertation on its own, but I’ve singled it out to complain about general trends, and for that I probably owe it an apology. Said apology is predicated on the fact that it is still a very underwhelming and bad design which could have used a lot more thought. There are a million ways this could have been made decent, and none of them were implemented because that would have taken effort and time and creative vision. I think this post actually required more time and effort than Lufthansa put into designing their planes. 

That said, Lufthansa gets a final grade of D. It’s...bad, it definitely is. There’s the vague flavour of the start of something, like the very distant smell from a barbecue happening three blocks away, but is that really even a redeeming factor? 

No. The second-largest airline in Europe should be able to do better. If I have to stare at rows upon rows of their planes any time I’m at a German airport, they should have the decency to make them interesting to look at. 

#tarmac fashion week #region: europe #region: west/central europe #lufthansa #region: germany #grade: d #era: 2010s #era: 2020s #era: 1950s #era: 1960s #era: 1970s #era: 1980s #era: 1990s #era: 2000s #retired liveries #flag carriers #double sunrise #long haul #lufthansa group #lufthansa line #scandinavian airlines system #deltalike

[formulalfc]

🏎️get to know me: formula one edition🏎️

feel free to reblog!!

who is your favourite driver?

what is your favourite team?

which track is your favourite?

when did you start watching formula one?

what is the best race you've watched?

which retired (or previous) driver was your favourite?

who is your favourite team principal?

what do you think the standings are going to look like next season?

who is your dream driver line-up?

do you have a controversial f1 take?

if you could have a race in a country that doesn't have a race, which country would it be?

what driver do you wish was on the grid this year?

which driver do you wish wasn't on the grid this year?

have you ever been to an f1 race?

is there a track that you would get rid of?

what do you think of the FIA?

who do you think is the greatest of all time?

do you think you could drive an f1 car?

have you ever been go-karting?

which f1 driver do you think would win if they went go-karting?

what is your favourite f1-related quote?

which livery do you like the most/are you most excited for?

which team do you think is going to surprise everyone this year?

which team do you think will disappoint people this year?

do you plan on attending a race this year?

which driver would you most like to meet?

do you watch other motorsports or just f1?

are you excited to see where the f1 academy is going to go?

do you have any f1 tattoos?

do you have any f1 merch?

#formulalfc #formula 1 #formula one #f1 #max verstappen #sergio checo pérez #lewis hamilton #george russell #lando norris #oscar piastri #yuki tsunoda #daniel ricciardo #lance stroll #fernando alonso #alex albon #logan sargeant #kevin magnussen #nico hulkenberg #esteban ocon #pierre gasly #zhou guanyu #valterri bottas #charles leclerc #carlos sainz #get to know me

[dilemmaontwolegs]

Another Lie || CL16 {5} - Charles' Ending

Warnings: 18+ only, fluff, if you don’t want a Charles happy ending look away now and wait for the Max alternative! WC: 2.8k

F1 Masterlist || One || Two || Three || Four || Five (Charles) || Five (Max) || 5.1 blurb request

It was strange to be back after so long. It was strange to see that the Principality hadn’t changed at all. Upon reflection, the only difference was that you had. 

The gravel path crunched under your ballet flats as you followed the winding track to the lookout and found him sitting upon the wall looking out over his homeland. 

“Is this seat taken?” 

Charles nearly fell off his perch with how fast he turned and you placed a steadying hand on his shoulder as he righted himself. 

“What…?” he trailed off in confusion as he stared at you in disbelief. 

Thanks to Instagram you had seen how his face had sharpened with age, heard how his voice had deepened too. And, from what interviews you had watched, even his thoughts and opinions had matured in recent times.

But he hadn’t seen the difference three years had made to you. You were never one to publicise your life and your Instagram was mostly used to keep up with other peoples life rather than display your own. He knew because he still checked.

“Your mum called.” He was still staring as you climbed the wall and took a seat beside him. “I can’t believe it’s been ten years.”

When Pascale had invited you to the anniversary of Hervé’s death she had assured you that Charles was aware and fine with it but given how shocked he still was at your arrival that didn’t appear to be true.

“Where’s Jules?” you asked, trying to get him to say something other than stare as you picked at the loose stones on the wall.

A smile curled his lips at the mention of his son before it lost some of its brilliance. “It’s Sapphire’s week with him. Wait, my mum has your number?”

“We’ve kept in touch over the years,” you admitted with a shrug. She had never forgotten your birthday and always wished you a Merry Christmas. “When she said you weren’t answering your phone I figured you’d be up here.”

“I just needed to clear my head for a bit,” he murmured as he peeled his eyes away from you and returned to watching the sun reflect on the picturesque Côte d’Azur. “With the custody battle, the busy race schedule and dad’s anniversary, it all got a little loud in here.” He tapped a ringed finger to his head and sighed. “I’m thinking about retiring.”

The stone in your fingers slipped and tumbled down your leg and into your shoe, irritating your foot as you tried to kick it back out. With a chuckle, Charles dropped off the wall and pulled your shoe off, flicking the stone out before slipping it back on. 

“Thanks,” you muttered as you still tried to process the information he had dumped on you. “Why would you retire? You’ve been doing great!”

He didn’t return to his seat beside you, instead he tipped his head back and closed his eyes as the sun warmed his face. “There’s something more important to me than winning now. I only get to see Jules every second week, and there’s 28 race weekends this year. There’s just not enough time to race and be the father I want to be for him, the one he deserves.”

When he opened his eyes you could already see the decision had been made, whether he knew it or not. 

“At least you can retire knowing you kept your promise,” you said as you felt your phone vibrate in your pocket. “You always swore you’d win a championship with Ferrari, even when no one else thought it was possible.”

His lips parted with a laugh as he kicked the rocks with his sneakers. “Wasn’t easy.”

“Nothing good is. But all that hard work and you never put the #1 on your livery…why?”

He shrugged and buried his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I chose my number for a reason.”

He could have chosen sixteen for a number of reasons but he always said it was because your anniversary was the 16th of January, you first met in 2016 and one plus six equals seven - his lucky number. He was always looking for patterns in everyday things, he couldn’t help it. 

Your phone vibrated again with a reminder you hadn’t opened the message and you saw Pascale’s name, asking if you had found him. You quickly replied that you had and shoved it back in your pocket before hopping off the wall. 

“Come on, your mum’s probably worrying we’ll be late as usual and you’re my ride off this mountain.” 

“We?” he asked as he cocked an eyebrow up. “I was always ready on time, you were the one who made us late for everything.”

“That’s not how I see it, because as the driver, it’s your responsibility to get us to the destination on time.” 

It was effortless how easy the lighthearted teasing came without any of the biting remarks or bitter sarcasm that had tainted those last months of your relationship. This was, dare you say it, nice. You only hoped it could last because you had missed his friendship most of all. 

“How did you get here?” Charles asked when he looked around the carpark, only spotting a few older model cars alongside the latest Ferrari Purosangue.

“Arthur dropped me off after he picked me up from the airport.” You slipped into the luxury SUV and pouted as the engine started far quieter than the Pista. “Where’s my baby?”

“Gathering dust most of the time.” He nodded his head to the backseat and you looked over your shoulder. “She doesn’t fit a carseat.” 

“Of course, that makes sense.” You shook your head with a small laugh. “I can’t believe how practical you are now.”

“Having Jules changed me. The first time I held him, it was like everything came into focus, you know? I realised if I carried on like I was then he was going to see that behaviour as being okay, and it wasn’t okay.” He glanced across the car making eye contact with you. “I’m trying to be a better man, one he can be proud to call dad.”

Hervé would have been proud to see his family, smiles on their faces as they sat around the tables that had been pushed together to accommodate everyone, celebrating the life he had. 

Lorenzo’s family had grown by two and the toddlers were full of energy as they chased each other around the table; Arthur’s wife, Carla, also had one bundle of joy on the way; and Pascale looked at all of her sons with radiating pride. You almost shed a tear as you sat down for the family dinner after visiting Hervé’s memorial, the love and warmth that filled the Leclerc’s family home felt like the missing piece you hadn’t been able to find on all your travels.

“You okay?” Charles asked as he filled your glass up with the sweet lemonade Pascale had made for her grandchildren.

“For god sake, Charles, offer the woman a proper drink,” Pascale said as she passed a bottle of red wine down the table. 

“It’s okay, I don’t drink anymore,” you said as you passed it on to Lorenzo before returning your attention to Charles. “Do you still do this every month?”

He faked annoyance as he nodded but you could see how happy he was surrounded by his family. “Normally it would be when I have Jules but with the race calendar this month it just didn’t work out.”

The sun was beginning to set as you finished washing the last dish and passed it over to Charles to dry. From the living room you could hear Pascale reading to the children while their parents cleaned up the mess they had made and out on the back porch you could see Arthur and Carla sharing a moment as they watched the red sunset together. 

“I miss this,” you whispered before realising it had been aloud and Charles had heard. 

“Me too,” he sighed and stacked the plate in the cupboard. “How long are you staying?”

“Three days.”

His brows furrowed into a deep frown. “Is that all?”

“I do have a life,” you teased as you stole the dish towel from his shoulder to dry your hands.

“Does that include a boyfriend?”

The laughter faded and you shook your head. “No, there’s no one else.”

His eyes traced your lips and when you saw his tongue roll across his own you stepped back and swatted his arm with the damp towel. “Cut it out, Charles.”

“I didn’t do anything,” he lied through his cheeky smile.

You narrowed your eyes at him and grabbed your handbag from the kitchen side. “I’m going to go now because this has been a really nice evening and I want to keep it that way.”

He swiped his car keys up just as quickly. “I’ll give you a ride.”

“My hotel is only a few blocks away.”

“Then let me walk you, please? These streets aren’t as safe as they used to be. I’ve been mugged twice.”

“Then why would I want a walking target next to me?”

“Shit,” he chewed his lip at his flawed argument and sighed. “Please? I’ll walk you to your door and that’s as far as I’ll go.”

He held his breath as you debated the offer before lifting your hand up, pinky raised. “To the door and no funny business.”

He linked your fingers and shook on it. “Pinky promise.”

It was almost midnight by the time you reached your door. The classic cinema along the way was playing a double feature of Humphrey Bogart and when Charles saw Casablanca was about to start he had hooked your arm into the crook of his elbow and led the way inside. His smile dared you to argue but you had come to enjoy the black and white film whenever he had watched it.  

Hervé had loved to torture his sons by making them sit and watch the film at least five times a year as a family. You had only been there to witness it twice but it was clear despite the feeble grumbles they all had come to love it too, especially when Charles whispered the lines to you under his breath. 

When the lights had gone down in the theatre you had felt the heat of Charles’ arm as it shared the rest with yours between the seats. The projector flickered to life and the speakers crackled as the film began and you were thrown back in time.

You were immersed in the story when your hand was taken, the touch taking a moment to be noticed, and you looked down at your fingers laced between his before following the line of his sleeve until you reached his face.

His eyes were focused on you, and a sad smile played on his lips as he mouthed Rick’s line, “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

By the end of the second feature you were hardly seeing what was on the screen. You could have left after Casablanca finished but there was a silent agreement that neither of you wanted the night to end. So you had remained in the dark room as most of the other patrons left and To Have and Have Not started, your hands still entwined on the arm rest.

“Do you have any plans tomorrow?” Charles asked as you stepped inside your hotel room and he stopped at the threshold, leaning against the frame with your hand still holding his.

You bit your lip to hide the smile that appeared. “If I do?”

“Cancel them.”

“Ohh, sorry, I can’t…I have a lunch date with the prettiest Leclerc.” His smirk grew and he nodded his head in agreement. “But you can join us, I’m sure your mum wouldn’t mind.”

His jaw dropped before his head tipped back with a laugh. “I’d hate to be a third wheel. Maybe I can steal you for breakfast in the morning instead?”

You looked at the time on your phone and saw midnight tick over. “It’s morning now.” You took a step deeper into the room but your hand tugged tight against Charles where he remained firmly planted at the door, shaking his head.

“I made a promise, bella,” he said softly before pulling you back and into his arms so he could press his lips to your forehead. “I made you lots of promises, and I’m going to show you that I will keep them all…if you give me a chance.”

You tucked your head into the curve of his neck and wrapped your arms around his waist. “Three days,” you whispered. “That’s how long you have to show me the kind of man you are now.”

“That’s easy,” he said as he rested his cheek on the top of your head. “I wasn’t a man before. I was just an asshole who let the fame go straight to my head and lost something precious because of it.”

His words caused your stomach to flip and you looked up at him in a new light as you saw the pained look of regret in his eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to come in?”

“Ma bella,” he groaned, stepping out of your arms and towards the elevator. “Of course I want to come in, but I won’t. We have both changed. I want us to get to know one another again. Start afresh.”

You swallowed down the plea that was on your tongue because he was right. If you fell back into the same pattern like last time it would be stupid to think there would be a different outcome.

You wrapped your arms around yourself to keep from reaching for him as you conceded a nod. “Pick me up at 8am for breakfast?”

“It’s a date.” He started to walk backwards to the elevator like he was savouring every last second of seeing you in person and blew you a kiss as he hit the down arrow. It opened immediately and he looked a little disappointed as he stepped inside before a smile started to curl at the corners of his lips. “And just so you know, I am the prettiest Leclerc…until it is you.”

Three Years Later.

A gentle euphony echoed along the halls of the otherwise silent house and you wiped the sleep from your eyes as you padded barefoot down the staircase. It was far too early to be awake and even the birds had yet to rise with their songs as you passed the large glass doors that overlooked the dark waters of the Côté d’Azur.

With quiet footsteps you crept around the corner to the living room to find the reason why all the beds were empty.

Charles looked exhausted as he sat at the piano bench, his fingers moving slowly over the keys, drawing out each note a beat longer than they should. The retired racer’s jaw trembled with a suppressed yawn but his tired eyes were blinking less and less as he started to slump.

“How long have you been playing, love?” you asked as you sat beside him and brushed his hair back from his face. “The kids are fast asleep.”

“Really?” Charles turned with a groan to see Jules snoring on the sofa with his little sister tucked into his arms. “Melody’s crying woke him up.” He rose to his feet and cracked his back that had gone stiff from playing for hours. “I can’t wait for those teeth to just come through already.”

“You should have woken me.”

He bent in half, groaning at the protest in his back but he pushed through the pain so he could kiss you. “I need this, bella. I can’t feed her when she wakes in the night but I can play her lullaby. And you must have been tired if you didn’t hear her on the monitor.”

You followed your husband to the couch and gently scooped Melody into your arms, praying she was in a deep sleep, before carrying her back up to the nursery. Charles followed with Jules asleep in his arms and took his carbon copy to his bedroom beside Melody’s.

You both breathed a sigh of relief when you met in the hallway, the doors shutting on well-oiled hinges. There wasn't a single sound to disturb the kids as you crept back to your bedroom and Charles curled himself around your body.

“Goodnight, my sweet,” he murmured as he kissed your shoulder. “Thank you for giving me a chance.”

“You don’t have to thank me everyday,” you said with a smile at the regular bedtime routine.

You felt his smile against your skin. “I do, I’m thankful for you everyday and I always will be. Forever, just like I promised.”

Click here for the alternative ending (Max’s).

#charles leclerc x you #charles leclerc fanfic #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc imagine #formula one imagine #formula 1 fanfic #f1 imagine #f1 fanfic

[kwisatzworld]

List of Valentino Rossi books and documentaries:

inspired by @pgaslys list of marc’s docs

📚 Books

What If I Had Never Tried It [English/Italian/Spanish/German/Japanese/Chinese, etc.]: Vale’s only autobiography to date, translated into a lot of languages (so many that it’s hard to keep count). The English edition is notoriously rough - think spelling mistakes and some lost-in-translation moments. Despite this, yellow fans absolutely shouldn’t miss out on this gem. Published in 2006, during Vale’s zenith with five consecutive championships under his belt, the book radiates his happiness and confidence. The narrative is casual, with chapters loosely connected, but you will still find pleasure in reading this book.

MotoGenius: the Valentino Rossi biography by Mat Oxley: Oxley remains my all-time favorite Rossi author! Initially published years ago, the latest edition is available on Kindle. It’s a treasure trove of Vale anecdotes and Oxley’s unique insights, offering a glimpse into how Vale captivated his generation.

The Valentino Rossi Files: Everything I’ve ever written about VR by Mat Oxley: Available on Kindle, this collection (in two parts) encapsulates all the articles Oxley wrote about Vale for magazines and newspapers before joining Motor Sport Magazine.

Valentino Rossi: The Definitive Biography by Stuart Barker: A comprehensive biography of Vale, chronologically organized.

Valentino Rossi: Il Dio del Motociclismo by Fabio Fagnani [Italian]: Not recommended as the author’s fan-like admiration making it read more like a love letter than a biography. The only saving grace is the interview with Aldo Drudi.

Valentino Rossi: All His Races by Mat Oxley [English/German/Japanese/Serbian]: Chronicles every race of Vale’s career, enriched with exclusive interviews.

🎥 Documentaries

When asked about a movie about himself, Vale said, “If it’s a bad movie, I’d rather it didn’t exist.” He holds a similarly cautious stance towards documentaries, and has never personally produced a documentary about himself, though perhaps that might change at some point in the future.

Faster (2003) : Premiered at the Festival de Cannes during MotoGP’s golden era, this documentary intriguingly portrays the rivalry between Vale and Max Biaggi.

The Doctor, the Tornado, and the Kentucky Kid (2006) : Focuses on the 2005 season, especially the US Grand Prix, you can see the beautiful yellow livery of Yamaha’s 50th anniversary.

Fastest (2011) : A sequel to Faster.

Hitting the Apex (2015) : Arguably the best MotoGP documentary out there. Vale and Marco riding into the sunset to ‘Wish you were here’ is a poignant moment.

Valentino Rossi: The Doctor (2016) : Produced by Monster Energy, primarily illustrating how Vale expanded his empire step by step.

Racing Together (2017): MotoGP history isn’t complete without its greatest icon, Vale features for about 15 minutes.

Valentino’s Secret Room: Inside the Doctor’s Hidden Archive (2020) : Produced by Dainese, revealing Vale’s personal collection.

Ruta 46 – Ruta 93: El camino de dos mitos (2021) : Produced by DAZN España, unfortunately I haven’t seen it yet – if you have, let me know how it tells the tale.

Tales of Valentino (2021) : A nine-episode documentary series produced by Dorna, showcasing different aspects of Vale’s career through nine significant races.

RiVale | Valentino Rossi as Told by His Rivals (2021) : Produced by DAZN Italia featuring Vale’s main rivals (except Marc), sharing their stories with him.

Rossi | BT Sport Documentary on the Career of MotoGP Icon, Valentino Rossi (2022) : Produced by BT Sport following Vale’s retirement, highlighted by Suzi Perry’s captivating hosting style.

MotoGP Unlimited (2022) : No need for a lengthy introduction – it’s probably already been watched by everyone by now.

#valentino rossi #motogp

[valtionrautatiet-official]

An introduction to VR multiple units, part 1: Sm2

The robust milf of our fleet, probably familiar to everyone who has ever traveled with out commuter trains: the Sm2 electric multiple unit.

A pair of Sm2 units in different liveries on the A train service from Helsinki to Leppävaara. My photo from 2015.

The Sm2 class units are an updated version of the older Sm1 class. Externally the two were almost identical, but the Sm2 was easy to tell apart as the slightly sleeker of the two classes – the Sm1 had horizontal stiffenings on the sides, while the Sm2 with their bodies of aluminium (instead of steel) have flush sides. The aluminium body also meant a notable reduction of weight, which resulted in a corresponding reduction of electricity consumption. All this while retaining the sexy chunky exterior looks.

An Sm2 in the hot original livery at Kannelmäki station on the M train service to Vantaankoski. Today, the letter M is used to designate our commuter train service around Tampere. My photo.

A total of 50 Sm2 units were delivered by Valmet between 1975-81. One unit consist of an Sm2 power car and an Eioc control cab car at the other end. They were used in the Helsinki commuter train network alongside the Sm1:s, which which they could be coupled together to form ten-carriage trains if needed. As they are fairly reliable, the Sm2 units have occasionally been used on long-distance trains and at least on one occasion even an Intercity, but their relatively low top speed of just 120 km/h has made them less than ideal on long-distance services.

Original interior of the Sm2. Photo Skorpion87, Wikimedia commons.

All Sm2 units were modernised between 2002 and 2010, with the interiors rebuilt and a new red-white livery applies to the exterior. Overall, the refit followed the pattern set by refits carried previously on the Sm1:s, the two classes remaining near-identical (and fuckable) inside and out.

An Sm2 after the first rebuild, photographed at the Helsinki main station in 2009. My photo.

The star of the Sm2 started to decline with the acquisition of the new Sm5 units (Stadler Flirt) for HSL's (Helsinki Regional Traffic Authority) commuter network starting 2008 (These are owned by Pääkaupunkiseudun junakalusto oy, not us). A total of 81 Sm5's were delivered by 2017, which meant that the Sm1, Sm2 and Sm4 units were retired from the HSL routes.

Sm2 interior after the first rebuilt. Photo Edvardbeijar, Wikimedia Commons.

However, the Sm2's can still be occasionally spotted in Helsinki on longer-distance commuter services we operate to destinations outside the HSL area. Primarily they were moved to the local services around Tampere and the lines linking Riihimäki, Lahti, Kouvola and Kotka to each other. 36 Sm2 units remain in use for these services, and most of them have been given a light refurbishment, including repainting in our current white-green colours, as seen in the first photo.

The 14 retired units have been stripped for spare parts to use in the remaining units; in 2022, we entered a tentative agreement to sell them to our startup competitor Suomen Lähijunat Oy, who plan to heavily modernise them and use them on commuter train services in and around cities we currently don't offer local train services in, for example Turku. Suomen Lähijunat had some trouble securing funding, but the deal was eventually finalized at the end of November 2023.

Suomen Lähijunat's vision of a rebuilt Sm2. Photo Suomen Lähijunat/Idis Design

Meanwhile, we have signed a contract for 20 new Stadler Flirt units of our own (the Sm7 class) to be delivered starting 2026. (We also have an option for 50 additional units). With the delivery of these, our remaining Sm2's will be phased out. So if you want to experience traveling inside our hot milfs from the 1970s, you still have a few years!

#railroad #train #multiple unit #vr #suomen lähijunat (bleh!)

[aimeedaisies]

The Princess Royal’s Official Engagements in November 2023

01/11 Princess Anne, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke & Duchess of Gloucester attended the Senior Serving and Retired Officers’ Briefing at the Army and Navy Club on Pall Mall in London. 🪖💼

As Chancellor of Harper Adams University, attended the launch of the University’s Strategic Plan at London Bridge Arches. 🎓

With Sir Tim As Royal Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, attended the Grand Day Choral Evensong Service at Temple Church in London. 🎶

With Sir Tim As Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, attended a Dinner to mark their 40th Anniversary at Mansion House in London. ⚙️

02/11 Held two investiture ceremonies at Buckingham Palace. 🎖️

03/11 As Patron of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, visited Citizens Advice Malvern Hills in Malvern, Worcestershire. 👩‍⚖️

Opened the Specialist Operations Centre at the Gloucestershire Constabulary and Office of Police and Crime Commissioner in Cheltenham. 👮‍♀️

07/11 Alongside King Charles & Queen Camilla, Princess Anne in her role as Gold Stick in Waiting, was present at the State Opening of Parliament. 👩‍⚖️🪶

Opened the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Museum of Scottish Fire Heritage and the McDonald Road Community Fire and Ambulance Station in Edinburgh. 👨‍🚒

The Princess Royal, As Patron of the Eric Liddell 100, attended the inaugural Lecture and Reception on board Fingal, Alexandra Dock, in Edinburgh. 🏃🏽🥂

Unofficial Sir Tim attended the memorial service for former university friend and newsreader George Alagiah at St-Martin-in-the-Fields church in London 🎓🕊️

08/11 As Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, presented Royal Medals and attended a Reception at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 🏅

As Patron of Catch22, attended the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum in Birmingham ✍️

As Patron of the Wooden Spoon Society, attended a Reception at the House of Lords in London. 🥄🏉🥂

As Court Member of the Fishmongers’ Company, attended a Livery Dinner at Fishmongers’ Hall in London. 🐟🍽️

09/11 As President of World Horse Welfare, attended the Annual Conference at the Royal Geographical Society. 🐴

As Patron of the Butler Trust, visited HM Prison Wandsworth in London. 🚓👮‍♂️

As Patron of the Whitley Fund for Nature, held a 30th Anniversary Dinner at St James's Palace. 🦋🍃

10/11 The Princess Royal, As President of Royal Yachting Association, chaired the Annual General Meeting and presented Awards before attending a Luncheon in London SW1. 🛥️

Unofficial Announcement that Princess Anne will take over Presidency of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, taking over from the Duke of Kent who Presided over the Commission since 1970 🌹🪦

~ Remembrance weekend ~

11/11 With Sir Tim Attended the Armistice Day Service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum. 🌳 🫡

With Sir Tim Attended the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall with members of the royal family. 🌹

12/11 With Sir Tim Attended the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London. Princess Anne laid a wreath whilst Sir Tim stood on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office balcony. 🌹

With Sir Tim Took the salute at the March Past of Ex-Servicemen and Civilian Organisations on Horse Guards Parade, London SWI. 🫡

~ End ~

14/11 As Patron of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK), attended the 10th Anniversary Transport and Logistics Safety Forum Conference at the National Memorial Arboretum. 🚚

Visited the new Institute of Shipbuilding course at City of Glasgow College Riverside Campus in Glasgow. ⚓️

As Patron of the Royal Celtic Society, attended a Reception at Glasgow City Chambers. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Attended Interfaith Glasgow’s Scottish Interfaith Week Forum at Glasgow City Chambers. ☪️✡️✝️🕉️🪯

Unofficial Sir Tim attended a Kent Cricket celebration dinner at Lords Cricket Ground 🏏

15/11 Visited BAE Systems Submarines' Submarine Academy and the University of Cumbria. 🤿 👨‍🎓

Visited the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in Barrow-in-Furness. ☢️

As Patron of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, visited the Barrow-in-Furness branch to mark its reopening. 🤝

As Patron of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, attended a Dinner at St George's Hall, to mark its 125th anniversary. 🦜💊

16/11 As Vice Patron of the British Horse Society, attended a Coaching Career Insight Day.

As Patron of the Butler Trust, visited HM Prison Drake Hall.

As Patron of Transaid, attended a Reception at London Transport Museum.

17/11 Not Counted Departed Heathrow Airport for Gibraltar but was diverted to Madrid, Spain and arrived in Gibraltar later than intended. ✈️🇪🇸🇬🇮

With Sir Tim As Royal Patron of the Gibraltar International Literary Festival, attended the Literary Festival Opening Dinner at the Sunborn Hotel. 📚🍽️

18/11 In Gibraltar Princess Anne;

As Patron of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, visited Gibraltar Citizens Advice Bureau to mark its 20th anniversary. 👩‍⚖️

Opened the renovated premises of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment Association. 🫡

Met representatives of the Emergency Services and members of the Armed Forces at the Convent. 🚑🪖

With Sir Tim visited specialist vehicles provider Bassadone Automotive Group. 🚗

Unofficial Sir Tim visited the Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron, 🇬🇮⚓️

21/11 As Master of the Corporation of Trinity House, presented Merchant Navy medals for Meritorious Service at Trinity House, London. 🏅

With Sir Tim Attended the State Banquet in honour of the President and First Lady of South Korea. 🇬🇧🇰🇷🍽️

22/11 Visited Retrotec Limited near Northiam, East Sussex. ✈️

Visited Focus SB Limited in St Leonards-on-Sea. ⚙️

As Commandant-in-Chief of St John Ambulance (Youth), attended a Reception for Young Achievers at the Priory Church of the Order of St John in London. 🚑

As Chancellor of the University of London, attended Foundation Day at Senate House in London 🎓

23/11 As Commodore-in-Chief of Portsmouth Naval Base, opened Alford Schools of Military Music. 🎶

Attended a Luncheon at Spithead House, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, for The Princess Royal's Patronages based in Hampshire. ⚓️

As President of the City and Guilds of London Institute, presented The Princess Royal Training Awards at St James's Palace. 🏆

With Sir Tim As President of the British Olympic Association, attended the Team GB Ball at the Savoy Hotel. 🏋️‍♀️

24/11 As Royal Patron of the London Scottish Football Club, attended the 10th Anniversary of the St Andrew's Day Luncheon at the Sheraton Grand London on Park Lane. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏉

28/11 Presented The Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Volunteering Awards at Fishmongers’ Hall in London. 🏆

As Chancellor of the University College of Osteopathy, attended a Graduation Ceremony. 🎓

As Royal Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, attended a New Fellows’ Dinner. ⚙️🍽️

29/11 The Princess Royal, As Royal Patron of the National Coastwatch Institution, visited Canvey Island Station and attended a Reception at the Island Yacht Club. 🔎🏝️

Opened Huntingdon Fire Station and Service Training Centre. 🚒

Opened North Cambridgeshire Training Centre. 💼

As Honorary Member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, attended the Annual General Meeting and Discussion Dinner. 👷🍴

30/11 As Patron of the Not Forgotten Association, held the Christmas Reception at St James’s Palace. 🎄🎅🏻🎁

Total official engagements for Anne in October: 58

2023 total so far: 458

Total official engagements accompanied by Tim in October: 11

2023 total so far: 92

#hardest working royal #a busy bee #always there to support his wife 🥰 #unofficial engagement count 2023 #princess anne #princess royal #tim laurence #timothy laurence

[hazel-of-sodor]

Man, I'd love to see your take on Gay Crusader (one of Gordon's IRL brothers)

Sorry for the wait, but I wanted to do art for this and never found the time. Gay Crusader is one of the American A3s. You see most engines (especially large ones) were snuck out of Britain rather than kept. Gay Crusader was snuck out to America aboard the SS United States. America had (at least in theory) had locomotive rights since the 1890s. Upon his arrival and subsequent overhaul he was offered a job in New York hauling Passenger trains on the old New York Central tracks. He was very popular as one of the only steam engines left on the line (a story for another time). By the late 70s he was ready to retire from regular service. He spent several years in retirement before he was approached by a gay rights group. Starting in the 80s, Gay Crusader pulled a series of excursions, painted in what would become his iconic Pride livery. While he has since retired in the early 2010s, replaced by younger engines, his home shed is consider an important pilgrimage for LGBTQ Activists.

#Hazel Asks #Ask Hazel #Hazel Q&A #I will draw him #once I find time

[20th-century-railroading]

FARWELL TX July 6 1986 — Santa Fe SD45u 5366 handles the head end of a mixed freight. Within a short distance it will cross the Texas-New Mexico border and continue to Clovis NM. EMD built the unit (s/n 32508) in October 1966 as ATSF 1832 and delivered it in Bookends livery with blue body with yellow warbonnet. As part of the general renumbering it became ATSF 5532 in April-July 1970. Sometime after August 26 1972 it was repainted into blue body with yellow warbonnet. In September 1983 the San Bernardino CA shops rebuilt it as an SD45u and renumbered it ATSF 5366. In June 1992 it was Laid Up Bad Ordered at an unknown location. Santa Fe retired the unit and Morrison Knudsen acquired it before April 17 1994. Gene crossett’s Santa Fe diesel roster site records that the unit was “ret [date], to MK xxx94, to ATSF lease [date], to Helm Financial May96, to BNSF lease [date], stored at BLC Boise ID Jan99, to CEFX 3145 21Feb01”.

#atsf #santa fe #1986 #trains #freight train #history #farwell #texas

[anonymousboxcar]

RWS Stanley Time: Museum Edition

In my posts about my Moving Forward AU, I’ve talked a lot about Stanley on the SKR. So here’s tidbits about his life at the museum!

———————————

-Stanley pulls visitor trains around the museum grounds. He doesn’t like being an indoor exhibit, but he can manage being stationary if visitors see him in his shed with the doors open.

-The museum primarily uses him as an example of a trench engine, educating its visitors about trench railways. As part of his job, he’ll explain his class and his WWI service to visitors.

-If guests ask about his MSR days, he’ll wince. But he’ll still talk about them. It’s important for people to know how railways used to treat their engines, even if it’s difficult to talk about.

-Stanley also shares embarrassing stories about the MSR management. Is it petty? Yes.

-Does he delight anyways in generations of children knowing That Time Manager Fell in a Scummy Pond Trying to Catch His Hat? Yes.

-It can be difficult for him to discuss WWI, too. But unlike the MSR management, he respected and befriended the soldiers. Those young men never left him behind. He wants to make sure people remember them — and what they endured.

-On Remembrance Day, he wears his wartime livery. He also pulls replicas of the rolling stock he hauled in the trenches. He tells guests about names and faces, about in-jokes and tragedies.

-For the most part, Stanley gets along well with the visitors. He’s still a little rough around the edges, but he’s a smooth runner and he’s patient while answering questions…

-…unless you’re rude to him, other engines, or other guests. Then he’ll make a game out of telling you off without violating museum policy about “professional language.” And he’s very creative.

-He credits Neil with teaching him how to interact with visitors. In fact, Neil showed him the ropes of museum life in general.

-In return for helping him adjust, Stanley covers Neil’s work during Skarloey’s visits so he can spend more time with him.

-Because he goes back and forth between the SKR and the museum, Stanley is popular with the museum’s full-time residents. They crave information about “the outside,” hounding him for news and gossip.

-He spills the tea during a weekly occasion: To practice for his poker nights with Duke, Skarloey, and Rheneas, he teaches the museum engines how to play. One of the coffeepots is his star protégé.

-But there’s one person with whom Stanley isn’t popular — George.

-I don’t have any justification for how it happens, but I like to think George winds up at the museum after his company retires him. He demonstrates how little sense he learned when he tries to razz other “has-been, useless” engines in front of Stanley.

-George says he’s only being honest. Stanley snaps back that since George is out of service, he’s describing himself, too.

-George hates Stanley for this. He either tries to goad him or sulks whenever he goes by. For his part, Stanley manages not to waste too much time needling him.

-However, others notice that if anyone else tries to trash-talk Stanley, George shuts it down with the insistence that only he gets to do that. It’s up for debate if this is a sign of character growth or not. Stanley, who learned the value of hope, spares a little bit for George.

#ttte #rws #the railway series #ttte au #rws au #moving forward au #rws stanley #ttte neil #rws neil #ttte george #my au

[fangirl-dot-com]

Get to Know Me - Formula 1 Edition

Who is your favorite driver – Charles Leclerc (but Max comes a close second) 

What are your favorite teams – Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren

Which track is your favorite – Monza! My car is named after the track as well and it was the first GP I actually watched! 

When did you start watching Formula 1 – technically it was Zandvoort 2023 but Monza was the first race that I actually knew what was going on

What are the best races you’ve watched – Singapore 2023 (for obvious reasons) and the Las Vegas GP 

Which retired driver was your favorite – Kimi Räikkönen

Who is your favorite team principal – Toto Wolff

What do you think the standings are going to look like for the 2024 season – uhhhh, Red Bull is going to be P1 by the skin of their teeth because McLaren looks so strong (and hopefully Ferrari will come second or third again)

Who is your dream driver line-up – ooooo Max and Charles, 100% even if it’s not possible    

Do you have a controversial f1 take – I have a lot…um…one being that (this hurts me) but I’m really doubting that Lando and Charles are WDC material. I could get into a whole rant about this, but just because of either unreliable cars, devotion to a crappy team, and multiple driver mistakes…yeah, imma leave that here (pls do not come for me) 

What driver do you wish was on the grid this year – the man who was able to beat Max Verstappen into Q3, the one and only, Liam Lawson 

Which driver do you wish wasn’t on the grid this year – CHECO PEREZ 

Is there a track that you would get rid of – Miami (3 US GPs is so much – that or Qatar cause it’s so hot and detrimental to the drivers) 

Who do you think is the GOAT – Schumacher, definitely

Which f1 driver do you think would win if they went go-karting – Charles, he does the annual Jules fundraiser and wins, so I think he’d be a little more in tune than the drivers who don’t seem to go karting usually 

Have I ever been go-karting – no, but there’s an Andretti Karting near my house and I plan to go this summer 

Do you think you could drive an f1 car – no, but make it automatic and you’d have to pry my dead body out of the seat 

What is your favorite f1-related quote – one I say a lot is “if you have a problem, change your f-ing car” that and “KI-KI-KI- RAH…KI-KI-AYE”  

Which livery are you most excited for – McLaren, I LOVED stealth mode 

Which team do you think is going to surprise everyone – McLaren and Williams?? (hoping internally that Ferrari actually has built a competitive car) 

Which team do you think will disappoint people this year – Ferrari, Mercedes, and maybe Williams (they have a lot on them and I hope they don’t switch Logan out early) 

Do you plan on attending a race this year – sadly no…but for 2025 when I graduate, I plan to go to COTA 

Which driver would you most like to meet – Logan or Max (I’d be terrified to meet Charles, feel like he’d judge me in french) 

Do you watch other motorsports of just f1 – just f1 for now, I’ve actually have watched an irl NASCAR race, and the endurance racing looks so interesting 

Do you have any f1 merch – I have lots! (t-shirts, red bull cans [is that merch?], vintage Ferrari bomber jacket, the Lego McLaren f1 car) 

#f1 #formula 1 #get to know me #formula 1 edition #fangirl dot com thots #extras #heart wants Ferrari but the mind wants a winning team

[blorbocedes]

Danny about to break into the rb garage to repaint the redbull into the alpha tauri livery so he can steal the car and win his first championship in an '' alpha tauri '' and retire. Meanwhile Max in his '' Red bull'' still outqualifies checo

I like that in this scenario daniel took max's redbull and not checo's

#blorbocedes ask

[runwayrunway]

No. 8 - Flair Airlines

I’m pleased to announce that this post is my first second ever request! (Sorry about the bumping back in the queue. Blame jetBlue, not me.) @fungaloids​ has requested that I cover Canada’s most complained-about airline, so let’s see if the self-proclaimed only ultra-low-cost carrier in Canada can add my opinion of their livery to their 15.3 complaints per 100 flights!

Being a relatively new carrier, you might not expect me to have anything to say about the history and evolution of Flair’s livery, but I really feel like I need to talk about the utter whiplash this airline has inflicted on me. My familiarity with Flair was only in passing beforehand, so I don’t know if Canadians have had to experience this in real time, but this company has existed since 2005 under two names and has had three liveries, none of which remotely look like they belong to the same airline. 

This cannot possibly be the same airline, right? This fully-servicable-yet-entirely-generic livery with what looks like a hotel logo badly centered on the tail is Flair? No, seriously, that tail looks like it’s photoshopped on badly but this is allegedly a candid photo. 

(image source: johnnyw3)

In 2017 they rebranded to this very...different look. I’m not here to talk about this but I must say it while I’m here - I enjoy the belly-centric livery and the blocking of contrasting colors here but I cannot get over how bad the wordmark is. This is a wonderful example of a livery being somewhat interesting but not very good. 

Just a year later, Flair, formerly a charter operator, decided to begin scheduled service as an ultra-low-cost carrier. Clearly this set their financially minded brains churning, and what they churned up was toxic sludge. 

It only took them two years of the blue and purple to decide that wasn’t the move and rebrand again to a color scheme of black and what they themselves describe as “acid green”. And I...

Oh. I’m angry at myself for this. I like it? 

Let me explain myself. 

I think this design is delightfully tacky in the best of ways. I like it when low-cost carriers lean into the fact that they don’t need to take themselves seriously. I think billboard-style liveries are excellent on carriers like this. We've gone from that utterly generic wordmark to this huge bold easily recognizable affair that spans the height of the fuselage, with the ascenders and big circular dot on the 'i' as a nice little pop-art-looking touch. It's a tiny detail but I also love how they lined up the crossbar on the f to be just above the windows. The huge and legible airline name keeps the white bits of the airplane from being too unbroken and boring, and the bright color scheme pops vividly.

I don’t think any other airline uses these colors, at least not that I’ve seen. The tiny bit of purple is a very classy touch, and I love the way the green is used to accentuate the black. They’re basically separate blocks, not mingling - one on the body and one on the nacelles and winglets - except for the big spotlight of bright searing green right on the horizontal stabilizer, like it’s going “look! You use this to pitch the plane up and down!”. The black section of the belly is visible from the side and helps keep the front of the plane from looking empty without creating clutter or taking away from the primary design on the tail. The entire design has a delightful pop art vibe to it, and like I said, it suits Flair’s business model to not brand itself in too self-respecting of a way. I even like the website on the belly. You can even advertise to people on the ground when you fly over them! Now that’s hustling. 

This livery gets a B+. 

But wait...what’s this? Well, as it turns out, Flair might have an all-737 fleet (very typical for this business model), but they operate two types of 737, and each has its own livery. What I just showed you is the livery they use for their 737MAX 8 aircraft. But what about the 737-800 NG which make up the rest of its fleet? 

Well, she sure did sit in a pile of green. That said, this....is worse. 

It maintains the pop art look, which is good, because I’d be furious if it didn’t, but aside from the painted radome (always a good feature due to how it makes airplanes look sort of like a little dog) this is a downgrade in every way. (To be clear, I think a painted radome would look weird on the MAX livery so I’m not mad they removed it; I just like it on the NG livery.)

It just feels like a bunch of unrelated bits merged together. It has that thing I hate where the tailfin is a different color from the main fuselage with no transition. The main thing here, of separating the plane into three vertical blocks, would be solid if there was anything which transitioned the fin to the main body (Uzbekistan Airways does a solid job of this, but it could literally be a teeny stripe and it would work), but it just feels like the black gets overpowered by the white and green and the reduced contrast honestly robs the green of its punch. 

Also, they removed the text on the belly. Come on, Flair. 

Overall, this livery just feels a lot less dynamic than the MAX one. I’m finding myself relieved that they seem to be phasing it out for an all-MAX fleet, with only two left in service. The phase-out was assisted, presumably, by the fact that Flair just had four of their leased aircraft repossessed by the lessor for defaulting on payments. Whoops!

The 737NG livery gets a C.

That gives Flair an overall GPA of B-, according to my calculations. It feels right, although I do feel pretty disappointed that I ended up more or less liking it. I feel like getting yet another complaint would be on brand for them. Does that count as a complaint? I don’t know. The livery’s good. 

Thank you again for the request! I greatly enjoyed reviewing this very green plane. 

#tarmac fashion week #requests #grade: b+ #grade: c #region: north america #region: canada #era: 2010s #era: 2020s #flair airlines #low cost carriers #ultra low cost carriers #retired liveries

[eggbreadboi]

chitchat flirting in the pits..Osano probably shouldn’t be that close to another teams car but non ones gonna stop him

also can we get some love for McAulay's goldfish orange livery please

^ in the mid 2000s, once they've long since both retired. Osano tries for the triple crown (he's missing the Indycar win) but falls in love with endurance racing after his Le Mans win, so he goes on compete in Daytona and Fuji Super 24h, and then commentates for Le Mans and other races in the 24 hour series. He's not totally absent from the F1 paddock though, and comes in from time to time to do commentary. Nikolai comes back to McAulay as an advisor/manager (he retired with a different team) and started working with my fictional equivalent of F1TV

#NL13 #OK48 #I love them lots even though they're gonna be super background characters #motorsport ocs #rest in peace to Nikolai's hairline and also his braid #osano kanagami #nikolai leonov #egg's ocs #f1 ocs #classic f1 #f1 1980s

[lafcadiosadventures]

Madame Putiphar Groupread. Book Two, Chapter XXXVI

ℑ𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔡𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔖𝔢𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔩 ℜ𝔬𝔶𝔞𝔩𝔢

Jean-Dominique Ingres, le bain turc + study for the bain turc, source, wikipedia

{fellow readers: @sainteverge @counterwiddershins }

Borel puts into practice his theory of parallels between despots of different nations. As I said before, his thesis is not without huge etnocentrism problems, mostly for how he formulated it, but there is something to it imo. It is licit to seek similarities between despotic/oppressive systems, the problem was that Borel made it about a foreign Race corrupting the virile primitive monarchies with its luxurious ways :d

So, here he ellaborates a complex comparison between the serails (his sources, according to my edition are: Six Voyages en Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes, and my editor adds, exceptionally volume VI, Nouvelle Relation de l’interieur du serail (1713), by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier.)and the parc-aux-cerfs. Some parallels, (like the green livery) we are to understand, are made by the King himself who has tried to fashion his brothel after a fantasy harem. Others are parallels (like the selams) cannot be literal, but drawn by the narrator himself.

I don't think the rational explanation for the green annuls the connection I made between the other green wearers of the novel and the guards. However, on an literal level we learn that the green here is taken from the codes of the serails that inflamed the libidos and imaginations of white men all over. Green equals servants of the high born concubines. While the baltagis (literally "man with the axe," the guards of the serail) wore grey. Agiam-oglams were children between the ages of nine and ten, “selected for their physical strength” according to my translator. The Kislar-aga was the chief of the eunuchs, his main role was leading the concubines to the bedchamber, and there also was the Kutzlir-agasi, the chief of the black eunuchs. Then we return to french, to nominate he who was jokingly called monsieur de Cervière, the guardian of the virgins, like a loup-cervier, the wolf that attacks the does in this case. De Cervière (a retired army major) is the boss of the Parc, he rules over everyone else. His task is to punish and thwart any exterior attempts made to rescue the women. He also had to capture any possible “selams”-> in the actual serail, flower arrangements with codes and secret meanings, so, he will frustrate and punish any attempt to hide hidden secret messages by the women to the exterior or vice-versa. He had the authority to summon the sphahis, a regimient of mounted soldiers in post conquest of Algeria France, selected from the arab and bereber population. [This word came to france from ottoman turkish, the original word is sipahi, which is turkish merely means horsemen, but that aquired a super insulting meaning in spanish, still in use (the word cipayo, literally a mercenary, figuratively a person from the periphery who defends the interests of the imperial metropolis against his own nation)(not only they force draft colonial soldiers, they also transform their words into insults)]

We learn that the Madame functions as a female kutzlir-agasi, she has to prevent contact between the odalisks, she is, as it had been hinted, a low born, “vulgar” woman, who thanks to her extreme organized nature has earned the confidence of Pharao, who joking with her sexuality implies she will one day transform into a man and then he will make her his CHASNATARBASSI

Under the Madame operated two chambermaids who educated the wards/pupils in etiquette, manners, music,dance, literature and painting (not very different from the regular femenine education of the day, they had to know these basic things to be agreeable to the king in case they were not highborn) below the two chambermaids were the dueñas, who fulfilled "any task or service", and had to spy on the pupils. The vile and harsh jobs were done by servants + the horrid and old baltagis. They were very well payed but any minor failing they could be sent to the dungeons. (a terror regime, well payed but very high risk for those enforcing order as well)

“There were odalisques of all age, from nine or ten to twenty years old. When they reached their fifteenth year the town they were living in was no longer kept hidden from them; but they were diverted from believing that they were destined to Pharaoh’s bed. When they were suspected of knowing their destination, which they had learned, either by chance or through confiding, they were sent away and put in a cloister or a chapterhouse, or, when they were pregnant, were married off.”

(tr. Sainteverge)

we know that about the ages to be true, sadly. After reading this we can be hopeful for Maria degli Angeli to have made it alive after all.

Then Borel details the monetary cost of the serail, which is not irrelevant, while the people starved, as corresponds to a monarch, the king spent large fortunes in his idle pleasures. Its also interested to note his dispassionate tone here, no rage, just numbers. It is a well oiled machine after all, a perfect system of sale and purchase of women and a whole system of payed servants and jailkeepers, recruiters and bribers meant to keep the whole thing working. A perfectly rational and dare I say Enlightened enterprise, nothing random or capricious here, not very different from japan's comfort women or the joy divison in nazi germany. Sex is a right of the monarch, but also, these are people being terrified having their lives stolen from them. This creates a rethoric of power and an aura of terror. I would not be surprised if people constructed the parc into a fairy taleesque opportunity for the women (a bit like Maria reconstructs her experience) but historians try to claim a bit of a black legend surrounding it, which implies a general popular rejection of it. 8however we know much of the horrors to be true)

Borel states: the royal brothel with its comerce of nubile flesh lasted 34 years. 34 years and no one ever payed for the various crimes commited within it.

Borel also remarks, drawing one last paralel with the convents: the last superintendent who succeded mme Putiphar had been a canoness

#madame putiphar #long post #text post #catching up #back to putiposting sunglass emoji etc

[valtionrautatiet-official]

Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää!

Happy (Finnish) Indepence Day! Since today is mostly marked by the president shaking hands with every guest of their Independence Day reception, I thought this would be a fine time to introduce some of our past Presidential coaches. Today we have none, but until the 2000s we operated a carriage specifically designed for the use of the President of the Republic.

The president's coach was always the A1. Here is the 19XX-built A1, photographed in 1973 by the time it had already been replaced by a new A1 in 1970 and had been demoted to A30. Originally, first-class carriages were painted blue, but by this time the colour only survived in special carriages, with all regular passenger coaches painted brown. Photo by Tapio Keränen, vaunut.org

The 1970-built A1 was built specifically with President Urho Kekkonen in mind, as he was a keen train traveler. The coach was based on the blue carriages, with bedrooms, a kitchen and a meeting room. It was painted in the special livery seen here, which was exclusive to this carriage. With the delivery of the new A1 in 1992, this one was rebuilt into a "President Class" sleeper and eventually scrapped in 2001 due to being so badly vandalized in the interim that preservation was deemed impossible. Photo by Pekka Viitamäki, vaunut.org

The to-date last A1 (seen here with the "sister carriage" A2 for the Cabinet) was built in 1992, during the presidency of Mauno Koivisto. This A1 and A2 were a fascinating hybrid of single-decker Intercity coaches and the blue carriages in terms of design. It was occasionally used by Koivisto and his successsors Martti Ahtisaari and Tarja Halonen, but eventually retired in the mid-00s. Photo by Eljas Pölhö, vaunut.org

#railroad #train #vr

[casinotrio1965]

Potential new Disney au , Western Disney Character Descriptions : 

Biased on this deviant art western au by daKisha - Hobbyist, General Artist | DeviantArt who is sadly no longer doing this au.

Lampwick is a little varmint who spends way too much time annoying the horses but he’s a good kid. He makes friends easily and he lives with his single mom, ex-saloon gal Carina, his grandma, and his little sister.

Tiger Lily is the Chief's daughter and member of the native band that trades with the town. She’s adventurous and plays a lot with Peter and his friends. She’s not scared of the crabby rancher Hook. She also might be getting a crush on Lampwick.

Alexander is the son of a farmer and he is really smart! He gets the best grades in the school house. He wants to get into something more interesting though and his friend lampwick sure is interesting! So what if they get into trouble if they always get out again?

Eilonwy is the daughter of a farmhand for landowner Adam and now that he’s gone, she’s got the tall order of taking over his work. Fortunately she’s up to the task. She likes to say hi to Alexander when he walks by to school though!

Alice is a student at the local school house. Her school teacher is Miss Jane Porter. She is one of the few children who lives in town. Most of the other students live on homesteads outside of town.

Pinocchio has lived at the Lost Boys Orphanage most of his life, but recently he was adopted by Geppetto. The carpenter has always wanted a son but he never married. Pinocchio wants to be a good son to Geppetto. He doesn't want to go back to the orphanage. But little Pinocchio is always giving to peer pressure and getting into trouble. Minor Characters Peter Pan is an orphan from the Lost Boys Home . He wants to be a cowboy and a gunslinger with a fast horse when he grows up. He works for Belle's father, Maurice, at the smithy stable after school. Peter is trying to save up to buy his own horse. When he's not working at the stable and playing pranks, he can be found talking to Sheriff Hercules about his latest gun slinging adventures.

As an Arabian, Tinkerbell might be one of the most exotic horses in Maurice's Livery Stables, but she has been impossible to sell because of her feisty, stubborn nature and short temper. Peter Pan sees her potential as a great horse and has been trying to bond with her. He hopes that by working for Maurice after school, he can eventually earn enough money to buy her.

Townspeople

As a orphan kid in the city, Hercules was always picked on and bullied. So he ran away from home at a young age to become a cowboy. He never did get the hang of roping cattle, but he found his calling when he meet retired Lone Star Ranger, Phil. Rumor has it his real father is the governor of Texas, and he secretly paid for Hercules's law education. Now, Hercules is the Sheriff of a small town in the Dakotas. He regularly gets offers to work in big cities, but he prefers the quiet life.

Maurice is a blacksmith and runs the smithy stable in town. His daughter, Belle, runs the town's small newspaper. He worries about her courting ranch-owner, Adam, who is known for his 'beast" like temper. He recently hired Peter Pan from the Lost Boys Orphanage. The boy has been a great help around the place in Maurice's older age and he enjoys the young man's company.

Adam is a large landowner who is known as the Beast because of his horrible scars that he keeps hidden under his gloves and high collars. He also is not the most pleasant person to be around. And who can blame him, after years of taunting and torment by the townspeople, he's grown a thick skin.  However, Adam is respected and well like by his ranch hands and workers, the few people who have seen the real side of the so called Beast.  

Miss Jane Porter is the teacher at the local school house. She came out West with her father years ago to explore the new land and it's creatures and Native peoples.

Snow White runs the boarding house in town along with her husband, Florian. Her apple pies are famous throughout the territory. Many miners and railroad workers stay there for extended periods of time, including a troupe of "little people" miners that Snow's grown rather fond of.

Aurora works in the dress shop with her Great-Aunt Flora. Her Great-Aunt Fauna loves to cook and owns Fauna's Cafe, the only other place to eat in town besides the saloon. Great-Aunt Merryweather goes back and forth between the two shops, helping out her sisters. Phillip, a cowboy and ranch hand for landowner, Adam (Beast), is sweet on Aurora and calls her Rose. They've gone dancing a few times but they are in no hurry to start courting. Not yet.

Belle runs the town's small newspaper that is published once a week. Once every two weeks if things are going slow. Her father is the town blacksmith. She tried to do an expose piece on Adam, a huge landowner with a mean attitude that the town's people nicknamed The Beast, only to discover that secretly he is a very gentle soul who has a bad temper. He gave her the rose cameo she is wearing. The town can't stop gossiping about the two of them courting.

#disney descendants #lampwick #pinocchio 1940 #disney pinocchio #peter pan #pinocchio #disney peter pan #peter pan 1953 #tiger lily #tiger lily x lampwick #alexander #disney alice #alice x pinocchio #alice in wonderland #princess eilonwy #alexander x eilonwy