Brussels Airlines has unveiled the latest aircraft in its “Belgian Icons” series, featuring characters from comic franchise The Smurfs.
The Aerosmurf design (named after the title of a Smurf comic in which a character dreams to fly) was chosen from over 1,400 submissions, and took 14 days to paint, using 28 colours, 420 litres of paint, 24,000 metres of masking tape and 4,500 sqm of masking paper.
The Smurfs franchise celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, and the aircraft features 19 smurf characters as passengers and crew, including Smurfette as the captain and Papa Smurf as co-pilot.
Evil wizard and enemy of The Smurfs Gargamel can also be seen trying to escape through a hatch in the belly of the plane along with his cat Azrael.
The aircraft’s interior has also been made over, with smurf footsteps on the carpet and imagery on partition walls.
The Aerosmurf aircraft is the fifth in Brussels Airlines’ Belgian Icons series, with previous designs including Amare, Tintin and Magritte.
The Aerosmurf aircraft will fly as part of Brussels Airlines’ fleet until 2023 – a list of upcoming flights which will be served by the plane can be seen here.
