The proper shade of heritage

US Airways rolled out its new and improved heritage jet with an Airbus A319 in the livery of a Piedmont Aviation Pacemaker, as the North Carolina-based Piedmont called its jet planes until the old USAir took it over in 1989. To honour its predecessors, the new US Airways, also known as the old America West before their merger late last autumn, is doing up four 'buses in the paint schemes of predecessors such as PSA, Pacific Southwest Airlines, which USAir took over in 1987. The company actually rolled out the Piedmont plane in May at Charlotte, N.C., a former Piedmont hub, but rolled it back into the shops to get the blue of the cheat line just right. And wisely so: throughout the Carolinas, many still believe that USAir bought a better airline in Piedmont, and some old-timers will cite the carrier's practice of giving a passenger a full can of Coca-Cola instead of just pouring a glass full. If those were the good old days...