Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd (Chinese: 港龍航空公司), operating brand as Cathay Dragon (Chinese: 國泰港龍航空) and previously as Dragonair, is a Hong Kong-based international regional airline, with its corporate headquarters, Cathay Dragon House, and main hub at Hong Kong International Airport. As of 30 October 2013, the airline operates a scheduled passenger network to 44 destinations in 13 countries and territories across Asia. Additionally, the airline has 3 codeshares on routes which are served by partner airlines. It has an all Airbus fleet of 41 aircraft, consisting of A320s, A321s, A330s and B747 (Cargo). Cathay Dragon is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong's flag carrier, Cathay Pacific, and is an affiliate member of the Oneworld airline alliance. The airline was founded on May 24, 1985 by Chao Kuang Piu, the airline's present honorary chairman. Its maiden flight departed Hong Kong for Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia after being granted an air operator's certificate (AOC) by the Hong Kong Government in July 1985. In 2010, Dragonair, together with its parent, Cathay Pacific, operated over 138,000 flights, carried nearly 27 million passengers and over 1.80 billion kg of cargo and mail.

Dragonair received its first A.320s in 1993 and operated them up until the name change to Cathay Dragon, which occurred in 2016.

A great source of aftermarket liveries for airliner fans is DRAW Decals. They produce decals to order and in several scales. This means they have to print the decals from their catalogue so it takes a few days longer to get your order. These are a big improvement over the old ALPS printed decals in that they are tough and not easily damaged. They still have a single carrier and would benefit from a light acrylic clear coat once the model is completed. My biggest complaint about the old decals is their lack of flexibility. Not the case with these as witnessed by a recent build using them. The instructions recommend using hot water in a cloth to help markings conform and also only recommend weak setting solutions, like Microsol. The decals come with windows so those using these will need to do a bit of extra work on their model in terms of filling in the windows.

This option uses the P&W engines, but fortunately, both the Zvezda and Revell kits have these as options. Instructions offer both side views as well as an upper view and notes to help you choose the right markings. It is recommended that one get a photo of the exact plane you are modeling, something relatively easy thanks to all the information available on the Internet.

April 2017

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