American Airlines Unveils A321 Medal of Honor Livery

DALLAS - American Airlines (AA) unveils an Airbus A321 with a tribute livery to Medal of Honor recipients. Today marks National Medal of Honor Day.

The Fort Worth-based airline painted the aircraft named "Flagship Valor" at its maintenance base in Tulsa and flew it to North Texas for a special banquet celebrating the honorees and those that worked on the National Medal of Honor Museum project. March 25 marks National Medal of Honor Day.

Community leaders are to break ground this afternoon in Arlington, Texas, for the construction of the new museum worth US$150m. The site will chronicle the narrative of the 3,511 winners of the honor for courage in combat. AA contributed US$1m to the new museum's funding.

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Flagship Valor

According to Planespotters.net, the newly-painted Airbus A321-200 is a 5.7-year-old aircraft that was first delivered to AA in 2016.

The aircraft livery depicts Army, Navy, and Air Force Medals of Honor, one of several references to their recipients. There is also a mural depicting soldiers from the seven major wars and operations, ranging from the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln initially commissioned the honor, to the 21st century's Global War on Terror.

The words "Medal of Honor" and "Courage, Sacrifice, Integrity, Commitment, Patriotism, Citizenship," which are the six values of the Medal of Honor, are also engraved on the jet.

The A321 jet's winglet also features the plane's name, Flagship Valor, as well as 13 stars, which match the design of the Medal of Honor flag bestowed to each recipient. The stars represent the 13 founding colonies of the United States.

As per Flightradar24.com, Flagship Valor's first flight will depart today at 2 pm from DFW International Airport (Terminal B) to Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. After that, it will perform scheduled flights to Philadelphia, Chicago, and Phoenix throughout the weekend.

Passengers on board the aircraft can scan a QR code to access a page with information about the Medal of Honor and some of its recipients.

Featured image: @_ZachGriff via Twitter. Article source: dallasnews.com