Icelandair Hekla Aurora Mystery Aviationtag

On Icelandair’s Boeing 757 TF-FIU, the northern lights, the stars and the mountains below formed a single landscape. An Aviationtag shows just a small section of that livery. On some tags, you can pick out a star straight away. A red-and-white piece takes a little more explaining. Would you recognise it as part of the Icelandic flag?

That’s the idea behind the Hekla Aurora Mystery Tag Event. Every Aviationtag comes from the same aircraft. You choose the category that interests you most. We pick a tag at random from that category, and you discover exactly which piece of Hekla Aurora is yours when you unwrap it.

How it works

There are four categories to choose from. Each tells you something specific about the tag you’ll receive. Choose Letters, for example, and your tag will carry some of the aircraft’s original lettering. How much of a letter you’ll see, what colour it is and where it falls on your tag are all part of the surprise.

Even within one category, two tags can look quite different. It all depends on where each piece sat on the aircraft. You can choose the feature that appeals to you, but you can’t request a particular colour combination, star or letter. Here’s what you can expect from each category.

Two Colours

On a classic two-colour tag, two colours from Hekla Aurora’s original paintwork meet along a clearly defined line. On one piece, that line might run through the middle, giving each colour roughly half the surface. On another, one colour might cover almost the entire tag, with just a narrow strip of the second along one edge.

Both belong in this category. You know your tag will have two colours. The pairing, the proportions and the path the line takes across your piece are what you’ll discover when you open it.

Multicolour Special

This category brings together special two-colour pieces and three-colour tags. If you’re familiar with the Hekla Aurora edition, you may already know Aurora Star and Mountain Dust. Among the possible Specials are pieces where an additional colour sits alongside an Aurora Star or meets the colour gradient of Mountain Dust.

Some Specials come from the Icelandic flag painted on the aircraft. If you unwrap a red-and-white tag, that’s what makes those two colours special. You’re holding a piece of the flag that flew on TF-FIU. Your Special may have two colours or three, and the selection can include a star, a gradient or a section of the flag. The individual design is a surprise.

Rivets and Rivet Holes

These pieces preserve a detail of how Hekla Aurora was put together. Some still have an original aircraft rivet in place. Others have the hole in the skin where a rivet once sat. Both belong in the same category, and your tag may feature either one.

This category has a particularly wide colour range. You might unwrap a single-colour tag with a rivet hole, a two- or three-colour piece, or even one that carries part of the aircraft’s lettering. The feature you can count on is the rivet or rivet hole. Any extra colours or lettering depend on the piece.

Letters

Every tag in the Letters category carries a section of Hekla Aurora’s original lettering. Sometimes you’ll see just the curve or stroke of a letter. On other pieces, the lettering takes up much of the surface. The colours and proportions vary according to the section of aircraft skin your tag came from.

A small fragment is as much a part of this category as a larger section of lettering. If you enjoy spotting details like these, Letters is a good choice. A particular character, a complete letter or a readable word can’t be guaranteed.

How many per household?

To give more collectors a chance to own a piece, each household or family can buy one tag in total across Multicolour Special, Rivets and Rivet Holes, and Letters. You can also buy one regular Two Colours tag.

For example, you can order a Letters tag and a regular Two Colours tag together. If you’re interested in both a Multicolour Special and a tag with a rivet or rivet hole, you’ll need to choose between them. That makes a maximum of two Mystery Aviationtags per household or family when one is from the regular Two Colours category. You’re also welcome to choose just one.

Which detail of Hekla Aurora would you most like to unwrap? Tell us in the comments which category you’d choose and why.