How can you top a Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet painted to look like Star Wars’ R2-D2 robot? How about a Kung Fu Panda Dreamliner? Hainan Airlines is teaming up with the Boeing Co. and DreamWorks Animation to make it so, and give away some sweet trips to China in the process.
The contest, which runs through Sept. 30, makes it easy to design the livery for Hainan’s jet: All you have to do is go to Hainan’s website, arrange a set of online stamps, symbols and paint patterns to fill out the livery on a 3-D plane template. Click a button to submit your design, and you could be a winner.
The winners should be announced by mid-October. The top-rated design will be painted on a Hainan Dreamliner that flies between China and North America. The designer will win two round-trip, business-class tickets to China from any North American city served by Hainan, plus one week’s luxury hotel accommodations in China. The runner-up will get two round-trip tickets to China.
To get yourself in the mood, you can browse through a gallery of the entries submitted so far. You can also catch up with the “Kung Fu Panda” movies as well as Hainan Airlines’ hilariously cartoony five-minute safety video. After all, entries will be graded in part on the basis of how well they reflect Chinese culture. Kung Fu Panda is a Chinese cultural tradition, isn’t it?
The contest is open only to those 18 years or older who currently live in the U.S. or Canada, excluding New York, Florida and Quebec.
Check the contest website for complete rules and conditions.
From GeekWire aerospace and science editor Alan Boyle
