The Jets Set
Not that long ago, Hawai‘i’s skies were filled with the colorful tails of planes belonging to locally owned airlines. The state’s home-grown carriers began as regional airlines, flying between the main islands and bringing island-hopping locals as well as visiting tourists around their inter-island networks, and they developed strong local followings.
One of them, Aloha Airlines, was near and dear to many locals for their “everyone is family” and “we are not the other guys” style of customer service and deep roots in the community, from employees to owners. Among the latter was Richard K. M. Ing who became part of the local owners’ hui in 1970 when his father Sheridan Ing joined the Ching family as investors.
From the beginning, Richard Ing not only had an insider’s view of how an airline operates. But as a part owner, he also got to experience many of the things that even employees didn’t see, since his involvement touched the investment and financial side as well as involved working with Boeing on new aircraft deliveries. From the moment Aloha Airlines made the decision to leverage fleet efficiencies by becoming an all-737 fleet, much like Southwest Airlines, the esteemed manufacturer in Renton, Washington began a relationship with the airline and its owners that lasted decades. Aloha’s first 737s, resplendent in their crisp white with floral tails, were first seen as detailed scale models, usually measuring about a foot long.
“Boeing would give us these models as the aircraft were produced,” Ing mentioned during a tour of his office that also houses most of his collection, “and unlike the plastic airplane toys that can be bought, these are either carved wood or epoxy and then painted accurately to show details like passenger doors versus the larger cargo doors on those aircraft types.”
Aviation enthusiasts would likely also pick out the subtle differences between the oldest and newest aircraft represented by the collection. Some are easy to spot, but the almost 40-year span saw some incremental changes to the fleet as well as the branding and tail colors. The scale models that line a long hallway at Ing’s office are but a few of the many he has collected over the years.
“Take a look at this one here,” Ing says, pointing out a unique paint scheme. Instantly recognizable are the iconic “Funbird” tails, adorned with yellow and orange flowers and the stylized script of the Aloha Arlines name adorning the forward fuselage, breaking away from prior block letters with disco-era curly flourishes and colorful outlines. Every 737 delivered new by Boeing came with a model, and so the collection grew.
The Funbird livery was so well remembered and much-loved that it actually made a one-plane comeback. Ing shared that “Sometime around 2005, I believe, we had an aircraft coming back to Hawai‘i after heavy maintenance on the mainland, and instead of repainting it in Aloha’s more modern Bird of Paradise flower tail, the Marketing Department decided to bring it back as a Funbird tribute paint scheme.” The airline employees were fully behind the return of the iconic livery, and old timers broke out some vintage flight attendant uniforms to wear at the gate and played ’70s hits over the PA as passengers boarded.
In true local fashion, Ing shares how he keeps in touch with key people from the airline, and graciously offers up his collection of aircraft, posters and memorabilia for display at company reunions. Also represented in the collection are rarely seen Boeing sales catalogs for their full complement of planes from the 737 to the widebody 777 and Queen of the Skies 747, because who really gets to go to the factory and buy a new airliner every so often?
Walking through Ing’s office, one might spy a room stacked floor to ceiling with what could be the marketing department for an actual airline. Carefully preserved crates with T-shirts from the decades of sponsorships for the local USTA Youth Tennis Championships and Keiki Hula competitions share space with stacks of knick-knacks that were handed out to passengers, from baggage tags to the odd branded mouse pad or commemorative anniversary memorabilia.
Keep a sharp eye out around town and one might still spy an old timer sporting a well-worn version of what Ing preserves in his treasure trove — testament to the long-standing affinity in the islands for a time that saw passengers walking up to the counter with a book of flight coupons and filling out their name, origin and destination airports and exchanging it for a boarding pass that was good for any flight that day.
With this look back at a bygone era, and the local aviation environment changing rapidly these days, it is heartwarming to discover Richard Ing’s time capsule of the decades when Hawai‘i’s airlines’ made the aloha spirit truly take flight.