Fire-red or yellowish-green

Two colors determine the appearance of the PANTHER in the world.

Fire-fighting vehicles are red, fire-red, which is the exact designation according to RAL 3000 - almost everywhere in the world. It's a different story for airport firefighting vehicles. About half of the FLFs produced by Rosenbauer are painted "yellowish-green". "Yellowish-green" is a slightly fluorescent, yellowish-green hue that does not occur in nature and is therefore particularly well perceived by humans. The special color is recommended in particular by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for airport fire trucks because, according to studies, it ensures optimum visibility at all times of day and night and in all weather conditions. Even with the classic red, there are color gradations that enable better perception. For example, the PANTHER is now painted not only in fire red, but also in traffic red (RAL 3020), daylight fluorescent red (RAL 3024) or luminous bright red (RAL 3026). Vehicles for airports in Great Britain and Northern Ireland are also provided with the Battenberg pattern in neon yellow/red, reminiscent of a checkerboard, which also serves to increase visibility. The same effect is achieved by (retro)reflective contour and warning markings, which are missing on practically every vehicle.

Color exotics

However, there are also very special customer wishes as to how a PANTHER should look. For example, vehicles at Riyadh Airport and at a Canadian mining company are painted in plain white. The PANTHERs at Newcastle Airport in the UK are painted half white and half purple, because everything there, from the uniforms of the employees to the front of the building, is kept in a uniform corporate design. The PANTHER, which came to acting honors as Sentinel Prime in Transformer 3 "Dark of the Moon" and today watches over a nuclear power plant (red/black), also has two colors. The same color scheme applies to the vehicles at Toronto-Pearson and Seattle-Tacoma airports, while the PANTHERs at Wellington Airport, for example, are painted in yellow/black. Completely black was the prototype of the new PANTHER 6x6 at the Interschutz trade show in 2015.

Ultimately, it is a decision made by the fire departments or airport operators as to which color their airport fire trucks should be. In Europe, reds dominate, as they do in much of Asia and Africa. In North and South America, the Middle East and Australia, vehicles painted in the yellow color spectrum tend to predominate, with exceptions confirming the rule here as well as there.

Individual grades

While the color of airport fire-fighting vehicles usually has a functional meaning (good visibility in adverse visibility conditions), the logos, lettering, names and symbols applied are more about branding, the individual touch according to the operator's corporate design. Every fire department and every airport (operator) has its own ideas in this regard, and the motifs affixed or painted are correspondingly diverse, ranging from the fire department or city coat of arms to planes taking off (Stuttgart and Berlin airports) and kangaroos (Airservice Australia) in the logo. Probably the most spectacular motifs adorn the vehicles at Warsaw's Chopin Airport: on the 6x6, a knight on his horse jumps out of a ring of fire; on the 8x8, it is the animal that gives the series its name, a black PANTHER.

Rosenbauer has also already given its flagship one or the other special livery. For example, the technology carrier of the latest PANTHER generation was on the road as a "Erlkönig" (prototype) with a camouflage decal, and to mark Rosenbauer's 150th anniversary, the flagship was covered with portraits of employees from all over the world. The anniversary vehicles are also delivered with corresponding special decals, most recently the 2,000th PANTHER to Fort Lauderdale Airport.