Air Tahiti Nui – A flower floating in water; hardly a conventional idea for a tail and yet it works. Beautifully. The ripples in the lagoon blue whisper tranquility and beauty. What better representative could their be of a country that bills itself as paradise on earth?

Etihad - Some would say that this tail is far too masculine and imposing – that it’s almost military in appearance. I think it’s super. It’s certainly not conventional. Nor is it a tail you forget quickly. Etihad has used this design since its inception (albeit with the small change of adding seven stars to represent the seven emirates of the UAE) let’s hope nobody talks them into changing it.

Qantas - The Kangaroo may have gained and lost a few kilograms over the years but fundamentally this tail has remained unchanged for a very long time, and with good reason. It’s striking, simple and quintessentially Australian.

There was chatter that QF were going to paint a few tails with the silhouette of other Aussie animals such as the wallaby. That appears to have been nothing more than a rumor.

Egyptair – After many years of that awful bland blue-with-chicken-scratch tail the folks at Egypt Air have pulled up their socks and made a change. The new tail is a winner. All of their new metal is coming online with this new tail. The concentric waves of blue are simply mesmeric!

Gulf Air – Even before it’s rebirth, Gulf Air had a striking tail. Of course, as the various emirs got into a “mine’s bigger than yours” competition leaving Bahrain in the lurch it didn’t really make sense to preserve the red, black and green runners… since Bahrain’s flag sports none of those colors.

The new design (tail and livery) is great. So great in fact that it has been knocked of twice (that I know of) and has set off a wave of imitators. Sure the idea of a bird-only tail is hardly unique but this look easily has the edge over the likes of Singapore Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Aerolineas Argentinas et al.

Emirates - Long before the billowing sail-inspired Burj al Arab Hotel graced Dubai’s skyline, the billowing flag graced it’s planes. What’s so clever and pleasing about this design is that it does not bastardize the real flag at all, it simply projects it onto the tail.

As far as I can tell the only change between this design and the original is that it’s is ever so slightly less angular.

American Airlines – Simple, timeless, clean, almost arrogant but in a friendly way this tail forces you (well me at least) to look at it. No matter what your allegiance may be this tail is a winner.

Thai - There’s something majestic about this tail’s almost opulent use of powerful colors. Then again I suppose for a carrier that still refers to itself as the “royal orchid service” that opulence should come as no surprise. This new tail was so powerful when it was first rolled out that it had what I call the BMW effect – as soon as you see a new one next to an old one the old one looks like crap, even though it isn’t.

Now if Thai could only bring that external feel to their interiors that would be great; I flew London-Bangkok last year with no on-demand IFE. Less than regal don’t you think?