Written by Dai Qian, Yuan Yuan, Zhang Qing
Photographed by Huang Dakang, Zhang Ming

"World Expo"took off for the first time on March 14, 2006, which symbolized that the preparation for Expo Shanghai had marched into a new stage. For this significant first flight, all participants from the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and China Eastern Airlines had put in painstaking preparation and one sleepless night after another.

The 14 nights after February 28, 2006, when the Shanghai Department of China Eastern Airlines was honored to undertake the task to paint the whole“World Expo”plane, was an unforgettable time for all those who were involved.

The plane chosen to be the first“World Expo”is an A340-600, the most advanced and holding the biggest capacity of all of Eastern Airlines, fleet. It is also the first time for Eastern Airlines to paint the entirety of such a big airplane. It is not an easy task to paint this wonderful design on the three dimensional space of an airplane. The most difficult part is to position the different kind of designs on the airplane. Technicians of Eastern Airlines held several meetings for technical analysis, and worked out the detailed operational procedures according to the plane,s design.

In the busy 14 days, technicians of Eastern Airlines had to, apart from tackling technical problems, dispatch personnel and temporarily allocate equipments and tools to ensure the on-time completion of the work while maintaining its high quality.

In order to accomplish the task, technicians of Eastern Airlines who participated in the work were divided into two groups to work day and night without stop. As it was the first time for them to paint the whole of the A340-600 airplane, some tools and equipments could not meet the technical demands. Therefore, as well as borrowing and leasing some of the necessary equipment, they produced a set of equipment themselves according to the actual needs on site, in order to make their work go smoothly. Time was pressing. Technicians of Eastern Airlines worked in turn in the 4 operations of positioning, painting, air-drying, and repainting.

On March 14, when the colorful“World Expo”proudly presented itself before the audience, it conveyed the speedy service and high quality professional spirit of Eastern Airlines and its dedication to Expo Shanghai.

14 March 2006 is a memorable day. At 14:30, the red background board printed with the Expo Shanghai logo and Eastern Airlines logo was standing ready on the level ground of the Capital International Airport. After the finish of the command“‘World Expo’to take off”, the background board behind the stage, which was complete a moment ago, was split into two halves in the middle, and slowly opened like a door to wonder and happiness. Accompanied by the World Expo song,“World Expo”was presented gradually before the audience.

In the golden sunshine, the body of the Eastern Airlines’plane“World Expo”was painted with Expo Shanghai logo and its theme“Better City,Better Life”in both English and Chinese, in perfect match with Eastern Airlines“Silver Swallow”logo. There were colorful ribbons in World Expo logo colors–green and orange and in Eastern Airlines colors–blue and red.

At 15:00 in the afternoon, the“World Expo”carried representatives from the Shanghai Delegation of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and some media reporters and taxied toward the runway. It turned onto the runway, prepared for take off, then roared along the tarmac and lifted into the sky. This“World Expo”airplane with its special significance took off and flew higher and higher, with the passion of the Chinese people to welcome people from all over the world to participate in the World Expo, and the vigor to actively push forward with the preparation work for the World Expo.