More and more airlines are using the image of older aircraft or ship history to advertise or commemorate anniversaries.
an example below with Air France.
This aircraft below, owned by France DC3, registered F-AZTE, has been repainted since 2010 in all the colors of Air France of 50 years under the registration F-BBBE of the time, for a promotional tour for the behalf of Air France:
rotation of Dakar, via Pau, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Lisbon, Gran Canaria and return by St. Louis.
Douglas DC-3C at Paris Air Show in June 2011. Do you have other examples?
I think the airlines do not have to be ashamed of their past.
That it uses old and new aircrafts does not bother me.
It is easy to forget what happened there 15 or 20 years.
There are too many major airlines that have disappeared, as TWA or Pan Am, which we would have liked to see the colors on the airports and in the air.
They don’t, especially the ones that were formed prior to the 1950’s. Back then they were customer driven organizations. Today, they are screw-the-customer organizations.
Back then the airlines were led by visionaries. Today many airlines are led be people who can’t see beyond day after tomorrow.
England and USA have a culture and a desire to preserve history of their aircrafts.
This is not the case in Europe, where you have to fight to get money and restore old airplanes.
Anyway, some DC-3 are visible in Europe:
