Graphics specialist Joel Freeland in TechOps used AutoCAD software to create a full-scale image showing how, exactly, the design would wrap around the fuselage. It’s challenging to take a flat design and adapt it to a 3-D plane with all its curves, so a trial was done first on a small-scale model.

Then came time to paint. Talented aircraft painters, many of whom have brought to life special liveries and designs over the past several decades, got to work, carefully layering on the unique shade of pink across the expanse of the widebody jet. Painters used a special paint containing a pigment that reflects about 90 percent of visible light, compared to 30 percent of normal paint.

Once finished and dried, the plane was put back into service today headed to Amsterdam, spreading breast cancer awareness across the globe. “It’s always nice to have the opportunity to be involved in something that has this much impact on someone’s family that has been touched by [breast cancer],” Freeland said.