Style in the sky: 12 of the best aircraft liveries

<strong>Icelandair -- Northern Lights: </strong>Not only is the livery of Icelandair's Boeing 757's Hekla Aurora design impressive, cabin lighting inside the plane also mimics the Northern Lights.
Next time you look up as a plane passes overhead, there's a chance it could be more eye-catching than another aluminum tube with generic corporate branding.
Aircraft liveries -- to give the plane's exterior paint job its correct technical term -- are getting ever more creative. By turns amusing, beautiful, or even downright odd, they stand out in a sea of uniformity.
It's no surprise that national carriers reflect some of the elements their countries are most famous for, while independent and low-cost airlines seem to revel in the unexpected.
    Here are 12 of the best that have criss-crossed the skies in recent years.
    Kulula -- Flying 101
    Low-cost South African carrier Kulula was a contender for the most creative livery design a few years back with its Flying 101 design highlighting different parts of the plane.
    On the exterior of the cockpit, an arrow points up saying "Big cheese -- Captain, My Captain!"
    The location of the "black box" flight data recorder is even highlighted with a big arrow. If there's a better or more striking way to understand what's underneath the skin of a plane, we've yet to see it.

    Brussels Airlines -- Tintin

    Cartoon characters are a consistently popular theme on aircraft liveries, here demonstrated by Brussels Airlines' celebration of one of Belgium's most famous sons, Tintin.
    The plane takes the form of a 37-meter shark submarine from the Tintin adventure "Red Rackham's Treasure," while Tintin and his faithful companion, the wire fox terrier Snowy -- or Milou in the original French -- also make an appearance.
    You can even read the books inflight in English, French and Dutch.
    READ: Tintin's newest adventure: Flying on Brussels Airlines

    Icelandair -- Northern Lights

    As an example of celebrating the splendor of the natural world, few can match Icelandair's Boeing 757 Hekla Aurora, which depicts the spectacular Northern Lights frequently seen in the country's skies.
    Not only is it a feast for the eyes seen from the tarmac or up in the air, the cabin lighting also mimics the famous natural phenomena. Lucky passengers may even see the real thing from their window seat.

    Eva Air -- Gudetama

    EVA Air's cute Gudetama theme is completed with pillows and headrest covers.
    EVA Air's cute Gudetama theme is completed with pillows and headrest covers.
    Another cartoon comes in the form of the hugely popular Sanrio character Gudetama, which graces an Eva Air plane on the Taipei to Tokyo route.
    Gudetama is a lazy, morose egg yolk, usually found resting underneath a bacon blanket. If that isn't weird enough, the Taiwanese plane's interior is also decked in yellow, with everything from cups to playing cards to pillows featuring the beloved little character.
    MORE: The airlines making stopovers sweeter

    Azores Airlines -- Whale

    The Azores, a Portuguese territory in the Atlantic, is unsurprisingly home to Azores Airlines. It celebrated the islands' status as a whale sanctuary by depicting a blue sperm whale on the livery of one of its Airbus A330 aircraft.
    The airline logo is also a whale tail -- aptly displayed on the tail of the plane.
    The livery was launched to coincide with the airline rebranding to Azores Airlines, after previously being known as SATA International.

    Qatar Airways -- Barcelona

    Qatar Airways has run a sponsorship deal with F.C. Barcelona since 2013 and in 2014 launched a special livery on their Boeing 777 featuring Barça's flag and club emblem with the tagline, "A team that unites the world."
    A natty shading element on the flag design appears to make it move during takeoff, while the Barça scarlet and blue, or "Blaugrana" as it's known in Catalan, covers half the plane.

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