Airbus A320 (N475UA)

This was the scene in the alley on the RNO ramp shortly after high noon yesterday. You won't see a sight like this very often ... here ... or (almost) anywhere. United Airlines only has a few special livery aircraft. And in those few, UA only has two aircraft in its entire fleet that are painted in former airline livery schemes (commonly referred to as "Retro" or "Heritage" liveries): this A320 dressed in United's 1970s-era "Friend Ship" garb (N475UA) and this B739 that wears ex-Continental Airlines's 1950s "Blue Skyway" colors (N75435). The "Friend Ship" and "Blue Skyway" liveries are the only two "Retro" schemes in UA's huge fleet. The "Continental Airlines" scheme seen here made its first-ever visit to RNO just a few weeks back, so yesterday was only the second time it has been at Reno. The "Friend Ship" livery has been here numerous times. Yesterday, in an extremely rare 45 minute time frame, United's only two "retro" livery aircraft stood side-by-side with each other. A scene like this is quite rare even at United's major hub terminals such as Chicago, San Fran., etc., not because the two jets aren't at those airports at the same time (they often are), but because those cities have so many UA gates that the two aircraft rarely end up side-by-side. For it to happen here is almost a one-in-a-million event; in fact, until the final months of last year, United wasn't even using B739 equipment here at Reno so the Continental schemed jet would never have been here. There are so many pics in the gallery of both of these schemes already that I wasn't going to post this one ... until I discovered there are no shots of the two of them side-by-side.