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Calgary, AB, Canada - October 2015

On October 18 WestJet welcomed visitors to their Toronto hangar to witness the unveiling of the airline's second Disney-themed Magic Jets. The first featured Sorcerer Mickey from Fantasia, but this new plane was inspired by the uber-popular Frozen movie and features Elsa, Anna and the adorable snowman, Olaf.

Following an inaugural flight the next day to, appropriately enough, Orlando, Elsa (as I've come to call this jet), arrived in Calgary for some air-to-air photography. Many Calgarians wondered what was happening as it appeared an airplane was being escorted by a fighter. Nope. It was just Elsa flying formation with the Lear Jet from Clay Lacy Aviation.

On October 21 WestJetters in Calgary were able to see Elsa up close before she returned to service.


According to WestJet's own press release, "the team that completed the livery included team members from Canada, the United States and Germany." Many people don't like the idea of painting airplanes with cartoon characters, but if gets kids excited about flying or gives people something different to look at in the terminal, I'm all for it. (Trevor McTavish)

After thousands of man-hours designing the graphics for Elsa, it still took an aircraft paint company in Fort Worth, Texas 21 days to strip, and paint the 737-800. Six painters worked 24/7 in 12 hour shifts to apply 643.5 litres of paint in 23 colours. (Trevor McTavish)

If you have a child in your life there's a good chance you know that Olaf the snowman has a dream of discovering what summer feels like. So thanks to some Disney magic he's laying out on a beach in the Florida sun. (Trevor McTavish)

It's clear that Olaf's on a Florida beach because he's right beside Cinderella's sandcastle. (Trevor McTavish)

In order to get the super-detail on the characters, Anna and Elsa, and Olaf actually started out as large vinyl stickers with some airbrushing tying them into the rest of the scheme. (Trevor McTavish)

Below the tail there are no stickers. Look at how intricate the airbrush work is on Elsa's dress. This is the APU access door, which is something no WestJet guest will ever see up close. (Trevor McTavish)

The level of detail continues forward. Just look at all the elements on the mid-fuselage swirl of snow. WestJet's name and logo were done with an icy relief. (Trevor McTavish)

Here’s another close-up showing the detail in the snow. (Trevor McTavish)

With eager WestJetters quickly lining up to see Elsa, it was finally time to pull her into the Calgary hangar. (Trevor McTavish)

Unlike Mickey, the Frozen theme continues inside the cabin on Elsa. In the forward fuselage where Olaf is sunning himself on the beach, there's a spring/summer feel. (Trevor McTavish)

All the seats have embroidered headrests, including those in the premium "Plus"-fare seats. (Trevor McTavish)

The rest of the seats ahead of the wing have yellow embroidering. (Trevor McTavish)

Overhead, the bin doors carry the theme after, from spring/summer in the front, to autumn in the middle, to winter in the back. This was no simple decoration. A 737-800 has 54 doors in a variety of sizes. (Trevor McTavish)

Moving aft, you can see the winter motif on the bin doors and blue embroidery. Even the bulkheads at the back of the cabin have a winter image. (Trevor McTavish)

Once inside the hangar it was possible to get an elevated view of the Elsa/Anna artwork on the vertical stabilizer. (Trevor McTavish)

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