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While many aircraft packages can be considered unique in color, shape, or composition, it is very rare that the employees of Air Graphics get to add a stripe to a unique part of the aircraft. Not so with this RV-9!

The majority of aircraft designs on the market contain the same basic stripe groupings: cowl, wheel-pants, fuselage, and tail. For the owner of N932DC this simply would not suffice, he wanted something different. A stripe along the top, a stripe that started almost at the base of the tail and extended all the way to the top of the glass cockpit cover. The Air Graphics crew told him this was completely doable. The initial design took some time; as the Air Graphics designers were careful to get an accurate diagram of the top of the plane to insure that the stripe they were creating would look both appealing, and flow around the components of the upper fuselage.

The result is stunning; a black curving stripe with a red center accent. However, installation was not easy. Once the stripe was laid on the top of the aircraft, parts of the stripe needed to be cut away to allow for the cockpit hinge and the top air vent. The final product was well worth the effort however, as the top stripe gives this aircraft a truly unique design.

To top off this package a light-slate colored metallic stripe was added to the side to contrast with the black and red. Over this vinyl was printed a checkerboard pattern, as can be seen in the photos above.

A unique design is one thing. But how long did it take to install? How long was the client without use of his aircraft? The client arrived at 8:30am with his aircraft. He parked it in the Air Graphics hanger, and proceeded to the lobby to check some emails. At noon the production personnel informed him that his aircraft was finished. Three and a half hours was all it took. That is a turnaround time that paint shops can only dream of.

From the top stripe, to the printed metallic vinyl, to the extremely fast installation time, this truly was a unique design completed in record time.