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Blue Bird Corporation Business Information, Profile, and History

3920 Arkwright Road
Macon, Georgia 31210
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

When the first Blue Bird school bus was built in 1927, its concept was years ahead of its time. This pioneering spirit still lives on at Blue Bird, where we continue to set industry standards in bus design and manufacture. This consistency isn't just the result of our commitment to manufacturing excellence, our design innovations and the pride that our highly skilled workforce takes in its work. It's also the result of listening to our customers to find out what they need from a bus and then implementing those needs efficiently and economically. Thanks to our continued success in the school bus and recreational vehicle markets, coupled with our highly successful entry into the commercial bus market, we are well on the way to achieving our long-term goal of growth through diversification. This diversification enables us to increase revenue without having to rely solely on the purchasing cycles of a single product line for that revenue.

History of Blue Bird Corporation

Blue Bird Corporation, based in Macon, Georgia, is the leading manufacturer of school buses in North America. A wholly owned subsidiary of British bus maker Henlys Group plc since 1999, Blue Bird also manufactures high-end recreational vehicles and commercial buses geared toward charter, tour, and commuter usage. The company offers its products to both private and public organizations, including school districts, state governmental agencies, corporations, and churches. The majority of Blue Bird's products are sold through a network of distributors located in the United States and Canada. The company also offers financing packages to school bus customers and manages four manufacturing facilities, located in Georgia, Iowa, Canada, and Mexico.

Entrepreneurial Beginnings: 1920s-40s

Albert L. Luce, Sr., was a dealer of Ford automobiles in Fort Valley, Georgia, located about 25 miles south of Macon. The small, quiet town boasted groves of pecan trees and little else. Luce's foray into the building of buses began one day when he sold a bus to a customer at his dealership. Luce did not consider the bus, which was built on a Model-T frame, to be of high quality, and he informed the customer that he could probably build a better bus himself. The customer retorted that maybe he should try, and this led Luce to build his first bus, completed in 1927. Luce sold the bus that same year to an individual in a nearby town, and it was put into operation transporting schoolchildren. Luce then went on to build seven additional buses, and in 1932 he sold his car dealership and formally founded Blue Bird.

Much of Luce's inspiration for starting a new company was reportedly attributable to his strong Methodist faith. The economic depression in the United States was causing car sales to decline, and Luce took this as a divine sign that he should manufacture buses and create jobs in his community. The name of the company, on the other hand, was allegedly inspired by a group of schoolchildren. Luce determined that using the family name would most likely be a poor idea, conjuring up bad puns such as 'loose bus.' Then, while showing a blue and yellow bus model to some school officials, some of the students dubbed the bus a 'pretty little blue bird.'

Luce was taking somewhat of a leap of faith with his new company, as public education in the United States at that time generally consisted of small, neighborhood schoolhouses within walking distance of most students' homes. Luce predicted, however, that the consolidation of schools into larger units serving a wider geographical range and improvements in the quality of roads, as well as the building of new roads, would increase the demand for school buses.

In 1937 Blue Bird succeeded in manufacturing a bus made entirely of steel, which was more heavy-duty and considerably safer than the wooden counterparts of the day. By the early 1940s Blue Bird buses could be found in a number of states, and by the end of World War II the company ranked seventh in a group of twelve bus manufacturing companies.

A Family Affair: 1950s-80s

Luce built a company that emphasized community and, influenced by his religious beliefs, clean living. Religious services were offered at the factory's lunchroom on a biweekly basis. Luce was also a businessman, however, and he paid keen attention to the bottom line, tolerating no waste. Luce's son George recalled an incident in 1939 that illustrated Luce's resolve to manage costs and make every penny count. Two of the three sons were home for the holidays from college, George told Rita Koselka of Forbes in 1986, when Luce began to discuss their study habits. George explained: 'My father told us, `Boys, I can tell you almost to the penny what the sides, windows or bumpers of a bus cost. If we think the costs are too high in any area, we can try to find ways to cut those costs. Now, it costs me $500 to send you to college. From your grades, I don't think you studied more than 100 hours. That means it cost me $5 an hour for you to study. That's way too much'.' Luce then proposed a deal: he would lend his sons $500 each at the commencement of the school year. The loans would be repaid by studying, with an hour's worth of studying prior to dinner counting for one dollar and an hour of studying after dinner being worth 75 cents. The discrepancy in the amount was due to Luce's belief that studying before dinner was more productive. The sons were required to report their daily studies via postcard to the company bookkeeper, and amounts unpaid by the end of the school year were worked off during the summer at the Blue Bird plant (at 40 cents per hour).

The lesson Luce taught his sons through his college loan program proved valuable as they all entered the family business, taking over more control after their father began to suffer from a heart condition in the late 1940s. The sons, George, Albert 'Buddy,' Jr., and Joseph, focused on growth and expansion, eventually opening additional plants in Virginia, Iowa, Guatemala, LaFayette, Georgia, and two in Canada. School bus contracts were secured through a highly competitive and aggressive bidding process, and to stay on top of the competition, the Luce brothers searched through rival companies' regional newspapers for any information that might provide them with an edge. The brothers were also helped by their attention to maintaining high efficiency and low costs, something they learned from their father.

Aware of the possibility of a saturated market, the impending decline of school-age children, and the problems inherent in relying on one product for all sales, diversification was also on the Luce boys' agenda. Over the course of several decades Blue Bird tried out new products, including city buses, soda delivery trucks, and a window fan. The majority of these new product attempts failed, but one succeeded, though it, too, had a relatively inauspicious start; in 1963 Blue Bird introduced the Wanderlodge, a high-end recreational vehicle, and entered the motor home market.

The original Wanderlodge was priced at $12,000, and the company had high hopes, anticipating a growing audience for luxury recreational vehicles. To promote its new product, Blue Bird sent some of its employees on a two-year trip around the country. Their instructions were to drive the Wanderlodge to various motor home camps to increase visibility and create interest, which would then, hopefully, generate sales. The marketing concept failed, however, and Blue Bird began preparing to return to the drawing board. Then, around the same time, in 1965, House Beautiful magazine published an article about the Wanderlodge, and orders for the vehicle began to pick up.

The Luce brothers assumed full control of Blue Bird following their father's death in 1962. By then Blue Bird was the fourth-largest school bus company in the nation, battling for market share with four other top competitors. Over the course of two decades Blue Bird climbed to the top spot, its sales increasing 20-fold. Blue Bird began selling buses to foreign customers in the late 1970s and early 1980s as domestic school bus sales started to drop, and in 1984 the company introduced financing services to its customers. By the mid-1980s one out of every three school bus sales was a Blue Bird, and the company sold about 11,000 school buses annually. Blue Bird employees, which numbered about 1,500 in Fort Valley alone, were paid above the local average wage, and the sense of family and community bred by the elder Luce continued--the Luce brothers knew many of their employees by name.

Though business was strong at Blue Bird, the health of the three Luce brothers was not; in the early 1980s the brothers developed heart conditions, and by the mid-1980s they had each undergone heart bypass operations. Taking the advice of a consultant, the brothers opened their family-only board of directors to outsiders in 1984, and two years later they hired Paul Glaske to serve as president and assume daily control of Blue Bird. Glaske left his post as president of heavy equipment manufacturer Marathon LeTourneau of Longview, Texas, to join Blue Bird. The Luce brothers' plan was to eventually pass control of the company to the third generation of Luces who were then in their early thirties and worked for Blue Bird. In the meantime, Glaske would run the company and had no plans to make major changes at Blue Bird; Glaske told Forbes shortly after joining the company, 'Blue Bird ... is really what an American company should be, the type of company I can be proud to be associated with.'

As management shifted, sales of the Wanderlodge continued to rise, and by the late 1980s Blue Bird was selling about 150 to 200 of the recreational vehicles on a yearly basis, accounting for about 20 percent of total company sales. The price had risen considerably since the early 1960s, with the price tag starting at $199,000. The top model fetched $350,000 before options, which were numerous. The motor home industry, according to the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, enjoyed sales of 379,500 recreational vehicles in 1986, down from the all-time high of 541,100 in 1976 but up from 1980, when only 181,400 were sold. So committed were owners to their Wanderlodges, affectionately called 'Birds,' that many traveled to Fort Valley when their Wanderlodges required servicing. Blue Bird offered the owners free camping at Wanderlodge Wayside Park, Blue Bird's mobile home park.

Changing of the Guard: 1990s

Entering the 1990s, Blue Bird was the confirmed leader in the U.S. school bus market, producing nearly half of all school buses sold in North America, and its recreational vehicle business was solid. A slowdown in school bus sales prompted Blue Bird to reduce the workforce from 427 salaried employees to about 300, and three plants, the Guatemalan unit, one in Canada, and the Virginia plant, were sold. Operations were further streamlined, and the factories were computerized to increase productivity.

The third generation of Luce employees left Blue Bird to pursue other interests, leaving the company with no family members to assume leadership. After George Luce died in 1990, brother Buddy approached president Glaske and told him that the brothers planned to put the company up for sale. In the summer of 1991, potential buyers of Blue Bird began visiting the Fort Valley corporate headquarters to inspect the merchandise. Glaske told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 'We were doing dog and pony shows, sometimes a couple a day, with potential buyers, their lawyers and their accountants.' Six companies offered bids, all in the price range of just more than $400 million, in November 1991. Glaske wished to secure interest in the company as part of the sale and also hoped to maintain current management strategies and procedures.

Eventually, Merrill Lynch Capital Partners, Inc., a division of Merrill Lynch & Co., agreed to pay $397 million in a management-led leveraged buyout. The firm acquired 82 percent of Blue Bird in 1992, and Glaske, along with 14 other managers selected by the Luce brothers, acquired the remainder. The name of the company was changed from Blue Bird Body Company to Blue Bird Corporation, and existing management continued to run the company. The two Luce brothers formally retired but kept offices at the factory. Buddy Luce voiced confidence in the new ownership structure and said he hoped new management would carry on the Luce family's legacy. Buddy told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 'We've made an impact in this community, put a manufacturing base where there was none. ... At my retirement party a man came up to me and said, `You hired me when I was 18 and now I'm 38, and my first-born is getting ready for college, and every dollar came from this good company.' I hope people will be able to say that for a long time. I think they will.'

With new owners in place, Blue Bird focused on continued success, which included plans to expand into the commercial bus market. In 1992 the company introduced the Q-Bus, its flagship, medium-duty commercial bus that targeted the charter and commuter markets. The 37-foot bus allowed seating for up to 45 passengers and also offered such features as a restroom and option for a 300-horsepower engine. And to maintain its leadership position in the school bus arena, Blue Bird offered technological innovations, such as the first school bus to run on natural gas, introduced in 1992. Blue Bird also forged strategic partnerships with other companies to work with alternative fuels and search for environmentally friendlier options. In 1994, commissioned by the Antelope Valley School District in southern California, the company teamed with Westinghouse Electronic Systems to develop an electric school bus. A year later Blue Bird worked with John Deere, a leading manufacturer of farm equipment, to install a John Deere natural gas engine in a Blue Bird school bus for the Poway Unified School District, located near San Diego, California. The retrofit was one of many promoted by the California Energy Commission, which began a program in 1992 to convert existing school buses in California to more environmentally friendly and efficient systems. In 1996 Blue Bird and Electrosource, Inc., began work on the development of an advanced battery system to power buses and other electric vehicles. Blue Bird's involvement with fuel alternatives was not only influenced by its desire to stay on the cutting edge of technology but also by the company's belief that school districts across the nation would increasingly opt for more economical, clean-burning vehicles.

Blue Bird's performance over the course of the decade continued to improve, with sales climbing each year. In 1995, for instance, sales reached $517.4 million. The following year sales increased 10.2 percent to climb to $570.2 million. In 1997 sales equaled $576.1 million, up only 1 percent, but gross profit rose 6.9 percent. 1998 sales rose 8.7 percent, to $626.4 million. The company continued to head the North American school bus industry, commanding a market share of about 45 percent in 1999, and though Blue Bird's operations in commercial vehicles and motor homes grew, the company still relied for the most part on its school bus business, which accounted for about 77 percent of net sales in 1998.

As the close of the decade approached, Blue Bird headed toward another significant change. In October 1999 Blue Bird was acquired by Henlys Group plc, the United Kingdom's leading manufacturer of bus bodies. The purchase significantly boosted Henlys efforts to expand in North America. Henlys agreed to pay $428 million for Blue Bird and to repay Blue Bird's debt, which totaled about $237 million. The Blue Bird acquisition was a welcome success for Henlys, as an attempt to purchase bus chassis manufacturer Dennis had recently been thwarted by a rival. Swedish car manufacturer AB Volvo held a ten percent stake in Henlys. Henlys planned to take advantage of Blue Bird's leadership position in the United States to expand operations and move more heavily and aggressively into such areas as the recreational vehicle and commercial vehicle markets. The new owner also planned to increase international exports. Henlys chairman Norman Askew announced his pleasure with the acquisition in a prepared statement, stating, 'Blue Bird's market leadership position, proven experienced management team coupled with a strong financial track record will complement Henlys' existing North American activities. Jointly we will capitalise on existing relationships and distribution networks to deliver strong growth in order to enhance shareholder value.'

Principal Subsidiaries: Blue Bird Capital Corporation.

Principal Competitors: Metrotrans Corporation; Navistar International Corporation; Thor Industries, Inc.; Mayflower Corporation plc.

Related information about Blue

In the UK, a sporting honour awarded at Oxford and Cambridge universities to students who represent their university against the other in the annual matches of certain sports. Ribbons of dark blue (Oxford) or light blue (Cambridge) were first awarded to competitors after the second Boat Race in 1836, but now holders may wear ties, blazers, and sweaters in the appropriate colour.

otheruses
Blue is any of a number of similar colors. blue light has the shortest wavelength range of the three additive primary colors. The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any color from navy blue to cyan.

The complementary (opposite) color of blue is yellow.

Blue in RGB system

In the RGB color system, colors are formed by mixing a red, a green and a blue color.

Naming and etymology

Blue in English

The modern English word blue(german:blau) comes from the Middle English, bleu or blwe, which came from an Old French word bleu of Germanic origin (Frankish or possibly Old High German blao, "shining"). A Scots and Scottish English word for "blue-grey" is blae, from the Middle English bla ("dark blue," from the Old English bl脱d). see flavescent and flavine), with Greek phalos (white), French blanche (white) (loaned from Old Frankish), and with Russian ?????, belyi ("white," see beluga), and Welsch blawr (grey) all of which derive (according to the American Heritage Dictionary) from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel- meaning "to shine, flash or burn", (more specifically the word bhle-was, which meant light coloured, blue, blond, or yellow), from whence came the names of various bright colors, and that of color black from a derivation meaning "burnt" (other words derived from the root bhel- include bleach, bleak, blind, blink, blank, blush, blaze, flame, fulminate, flagrant and phlegm). Some Nguni languages of southern Africa, including Tswana languageure momaa na utilize the same word for blue and green. In traditional Welsh (and related Celtic languages), glas could refer to blue but also to certain shades of green and grey; Instead, it traditionally treats light blue (???????, goluboy) as a separate color independent from plain or dark blue (?????, siniy), with all 7 "basic" colors of spectrum (red - orange - yellow - green - (:ru:??????? / goluboy / light blue, not equal cyan) - (:ru:????? / siniy / dark blue) - violet);

Blue in the environment

A clear sky on a sunny day appears blue because of Rayleigh scattering of the light from the Sun.

Large quantities of water appear blue because red light around 750 nm is absorbed as an overtone of the O-H stretching vibration. weber) is a blue-leafed variety of the Mexican agave, used for making tequila.

Bluebonnets are two lupine annual flowers in the Lupinus genus that are native to Texas: Lupinus subcarnosus and Lupinus texensis. In Scots it refers to the bird Parus c?ruleus.
Bluebell may refer to both the bulbous plants in the Hyacinthoides genus of lilies, or the plants in the genus Mertensia.
Blueberry refers to any of the plants in the genus Vaccinium, all of which have flowers with edible berries colored blue to blue-black, which are also called "blueberries".
Blue Flag Iris, Iris versicolor, also commonly known as the Harlequin Blueflag.
Blue Jacaranda, an ornamental tree with blue flowers.

Animals

The Blue Jay is a bird within the family corvidae.
Cobalt blue tarantulas are large, brightly colored spiders.
Hyacinth Macaw, as well as many other species of parrot.
Bluebill is a synonym for scaup, the name for two diving ducks in the Aythya genus: Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) and Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis).
Bluebirds are any of the North American songbirds in the genus Sialia: Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana), or Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides). They are medium-sized thrushes that usually have blue plumage and, in males, a rust-color breast.
Blueback salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) is a synonym for sockeye salmon.
Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus)are the largest animals in the world.
Bluebottles or blow-flies are any of the flies in the genus Calliphiora that have a brightly-colored metallic body and breed in decaying organic material. Bluebottle is also another name of the Portuguese man-of-war, Physalia.
Blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) is a long bluish North American catfish species, often weighing more than 45 kg (100 pounds).
Blue poison dart frogs (Dendrobates azureus) are poisonous South American frogs that bioaccumulate neurotoxins in their blue skin.

When a dog or cat is described as having a "blue" coat, it refers to a shade of grey which takes on a bluish tint, and diluted variant of a pure black coat. Breeds such as the Kerry Blue Terrier dog and Russian Blue cat have solid "blue" coats, as does the "British Blue" variety of the British Shorthair cat. Others, such as the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie, may have blue merle coats, which is "blue" mixed in with a solid, usually brown or black, base color. (See also Blue Dog Democrats, below).

The western skink has a brilliant cobalt blue tail.

Geography

Mountains and ranges

Blテ・ Jungfrun (the Blue Virgin), a small island hill off the coast of southeast Sweden, near the larger island of テ僕and, traditionally thought to be a meeting place of witches (according to tradition such a mountain is called Blテ・kulla, but only exists in legend)
Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland. Other ranges termed the "Blue Mountains" are found in northeastern Oregon (North America) and elsewhere.
Blue Ridge Mountains, eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains.
Sinite Kam?ni (Bulgarian: ?????? The Blue Stones) is a rocky massive in Eastern Stara Planina Mountain immediately North of the town of Sliven in Bulgaria.

Rivers

Blue Nile, a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
Blue Earth River, a tributary of the Minnesota River in Minnesota, United States. The Blue Earth River is named from the bluish green earth that was used by the Sisseton Dakota as a pigment, found in a shaley layer of the rock bluff of this stream about three miles from the river mouth.

Symbolism and expressions

Blue often denotes injury, such as in the phrase "black and blue," since it is the color of a bruise. This shift occurred in the 2000 Presidential election in which states which leaned toward Al Gore were colored blue by the major news networks and those that leaned towards George W. The phrase "true blue" also means "genuine" (example : "He's a true blue Aussie").

Blue comedy is comedy that uses references to socially taboo subjects such as sexual or lavatorial double entendre. This term is most common in Britain but also used in the United States and Israel.

Blue law is the term for laws regulating issues of morality, such as alcohol, gambling, or pornography.

Although blue is traditionally associated with boys as pink is associated with girls, there have also been periods in which pink was considered proper for boys and blue for girls, and times when no set color convention appears to have been in place.

Blue is the color of the snooker ball which has a 5-point value.

Blue is a variety of credit card issued by American Express.
The German word for blue is used for "drunk". "blau machen" (make blue) means to skip work.
In Russian, the word for light blue is slang for "gay".
In auto racing, a blue flag advises a car to yield to faster traffic behind.
Blue balls is a slang term for a temporary fluid congestion in the scrotum and prostate region.
Royalty are sometimes described as having blue blood.
A "blue chip" is the nickname for a stock that is thought to be safe and in excellent financial shape.
In the United States, $1 bills are delivered by the Federal Reserve Bank in blue straps.
Blue is the color claimed by the Crips street gang.
Blueprint is a term for a design of something, usually important items.

Books and written works

In the United Kingdom the traditional covering for Parliamentary and official publications and reports in the nineteenth century was a deep blue, and the reports came to be known as "blue books". The Blue Book is a term for a policy document issued by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States in 1946, urging television networks to uphold their commitment to public service. Compare with the yellow pages or white pages.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy there are many references to the Hooloovoo, "a super-intelligent shade of the color blue."

In House of Leaves every instance of the word House is in blue.

On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry is a book-length essay by William H.

IBM's chess computer (which defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov) was called Deep Blue.

Users of Microsoft Windows often use the term "blue" to describe a computer that has encountered a "blue screen of death."

A blue box is an electronic device with a tone pulsator that simulates a telephone operator's dialing console by replicating the tones used to switch long-distance calls and using them to route the user's own call, bypassing the normal switching mechanism.

In medical diagrams, blue is used to represent veins carrying deoxygenated blood back to the heart. The blue color of veins is associated with deoxygenated myoglobin, a compound similar to hemoglobin and found in tissues.

In astronomy, a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month, the third full moon in a season that has four, or a moon that appears blue because of particles in the atmosphere. www.dow.com/styrofoam/what.htm

In the CIE 1931 color space, the complement of blue is yellow.

Blue 80A filters are used to correct the excessive redness of tungsten lighting in color photography.

The Blu-ray and HD DVD formats utilize a blue-violet laser operating at a wavelength of 405 nm. Conventional DVDs and CDs use red and infrared lasers at 650 nm and 780 nm respectively.

National, athletic, and university associations

Azzurro, a light blue, is the national color of Italy (from the livery color of the former reigning family, the House of Savoy).

Blue (along with white) is the national color of Greece and Israel and the color is seen on the Israeli and Greek flags.

Dark blue is associated with the University of Oxford and Florida International University Light blue is associated with the University of Cambridge. Other universities with the mascot include Central Connecticut State University, Dillard University, Lawrence Technological University, State University of New York at Fredonia, and the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are a National Hockey League team based in Columbus, Ohio. The Blue Jays are the mascots of the Toronto Blue Jays, a Major League Baseball team, and its two minor league affiliates: the Dunedin Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida, and the Pulaski Blue Jays in Pulaski, Virginia. Law enforcement, and uniformed police, often wear blue uniforms and have become associated with the color, as seen in phrases such as "boys in blue," "blue line," and "blue wall." Most police cars have blue colors, and United Nations peacekeepers are uniformed in blue and white. Since laws prohibit police from declaring a strike, the "blue flu" is a "sickout": a type of strike action in which police call in sick.

Blue is associated with many air forces and navies because of the color of their dress uniforms, while green is associated with armies.

Navy blue is a particular shade of blue worn by sailors in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. The Blue Angels are an acrobatic flight squadron of the United States Navy.
In the United States Army, "Old Glory Blue" (Navy blue) is the color of infantry, "Cobalt Blue" is the color of the Chemical Corps, "Oriental Blue" is the color of Military Intelligence, and Ultramarine Blue is the color of the Army Aviation.
When the United States Air Force became independent from the Army in 1947, it inherited ultramarine blue as its distinctive color.
The Royal Air Force and many other air forces use "Air Force Blue" (Sky blue) as their distinctive colour; however their uniforms are often in blue-gray or dark blue.

Blue has historically been used for many uniforms of the French military.

Political associations

Main article: Political colour

Blue, like white, may represent authority, as opposed to revolutionary red or anarchist black.

Internationally, blue is the symbol for conservatism and conservative political parties. There are several notable exceptions and different meanings other than the conservatism:

Nation	Political party	Ideology	Color(s)
Australia	Liberal Party	Liberal conservatism	Blue
Bulgaria	Union of Democratic Forces(SDS)	Liberal conservatism	Blue
Canada	Bloc Quテゥbテゥcois	Quebec sovereignty/Social democracy	Light blue
Canada	Conservative Party	Conservatism/right-wing	Blue
Republic of China	Kuomintang(Chinese Nationalist Party,KMT)	Three Principles of the People/Chinese reunification/Conservatism/Anti-communism/Chinese nationalism	Blue
Finland	National Coalition Party	Liberal conservatism	Blue
Germany	Free Democratic Party	Liberalism	Blue and yellow
Malta	Nationalist Party	Christian democracy/Conservatism	Blue
Paraguay	Authentic Radical Liberal Party	Liberalism	Blue
Portugal	Democratic and Social Center / People's Party	Christian democracy/Conservatism/right-wing	Blue
Puerto Rico	New Progressive Party	Puerto Rican statehood	Blue
Sweden	Moderate Party	Liberal conservatism	Blue
United Kingdom	Conservative Party	Conservatism	Blue
United States	Democratic Party	Liberalism	Blue*

*In the United States, since the 2000 presidential election, blue represents the Democratic Party, and "blue states" are states that tend to favor the Democrats. (The rival right-wing Republicans became associated with red, and states that favor the Republicans are "red states." The Blue Dog Democrat coalition is a caucus of conservative Democrats in Congress.

During the American Civil War, blue was used to represent the Union, while gray represented the Confederacy. This representation was based on the uniforms worn by the respective armies, although uniforms remained non-standard throughout the war and sometimes the colors were switched.
The coalition with the Kuomintang(KMT), People's First Party, and the New Party in Taiwan, which favors unification with mainland China is called the Pan-blue coalition due to the color of the party banner of the Kuomintang which is considered the dominant party of the coalition.

Religion

Blue plays a symbolic role in a number of world religions. In the Hindu faith, persons of a transcendental, or divine nature are displayed as being blue in colour to indicate their dark complexion. To many Jews, because of its association with religious tradition, popular folklore, and the modern state of Israel, it has become the quintessential Jewish color.

In the Torah, the Israelites were commanded to put fringes, tzitzit, on the corners of their garments, and to weave within these fringes a ?twisted thread of blue (tekhelet).? Numbers 15:38. In ancient days, this blue thread was made from a dye extracted from a Mediterranean snail called the hilazon. Blue has been considered especially effective against the Evil Eye, perhaps because blue eyes are such a rarity among Semitic peoples and because blue is so rare in the plant and animal world.

According to several rabbinic sages, blue is the color of God?s Glory. Numbers Rabbah 14:3; in Arabic.) Many items in the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the wilderness, such as the menorah, many of the vessels, and the Ark of the Covenant, were covered with blue cloth when transported from place to place. Numbers 4:6-12.

The Israeli flag has two blue stripes and a blue Star of David against a white background. Modern tallitot, for example, often have blue stripes on a white background.

For more, see Blue in Judiasm.

Television

Blue is the color and name of the main character (a dog) in the preschool animated educational television show Blue's Clues.

On Star Trek, medical and scientific personnel wear blue uniforms.

On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Blue notes are the most important notes in the blues scale.

Bands called "Blue" include two British musical groups: the rock group Blue and the boy band Blue. Blue Man Group is a performance art group founded in New York City in 1987.

Blue Train is an influential jazz album by John Coltrane. Rhapsody in Blue is a symphonic jazz composition for jazz band, piano, and orchestra by George Gershwin, while Love is Blue is a popular tune from the 1960s originally recorded by Vicky Leandros and most notably performed by Paul Mauriat.

"Blue" has been used as a song title by many artists, notably LeAnn Rimes and Eiffel 65. Cristian Castro's song "Azul" (Spanish for "blue") repeats the line "This love is blue as the sea" (Este amor es azul como el mar).

Other songs which use the word blue include:

"We the People Who Are Darker than Blue" by Curtis Mayfield, appearing on his debut album
"Blue Room in Archway" and "Song from the Blueroom" by The Boo Radleys, both appearing on the album Kingsize
"Blue Jay Way" and "For You Blue" by The Beatles (both written by George Harrison), appearing on the albums Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be respectively
"Blue Turns to Grey" by The Rolling Stones
"Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who, appearing on the album Who's Next
"Blue" by Yoko Kanno, featured in hit Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop
"Blue Savannah" by Erasure, appearing on the album Wild!
"Dark Blue" by No Doubt, the last track on their album "Return of Saturn"
"Tangled Up in Blue" by Bob Dylan, the first track on the album Blood on the Tracks
"Miss Blue" by Filter, Appearing as the last listed track on the album Title of Record
"The Blues Are Still Blue" by Belle And Sebastian
"Blue Orchid" by The White Stripes is the first single for their fifth album, "Get Behind Me, Satan".
"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65
"Blue" by A Perfect Circle
"The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II
"Blue Shades" by Frank Ticheli
"The Blue" by David Gilmour, the third track on the album On An Island.
"Blue" by The Sugababes
"Blue Monday" by New Order (original) as well as Orgy (remake / cover)
"Post Blue" by Placebo
"Out of the Blue" by Delta Goodrem, the first single on the album Mistaken Identity
"Still Got The Blues" by Gary Moore, from the album of the same name
"Blue Spanish Sky" by Chris Isaak from the album Heart Shaped World (on which Wicked Game is also recorded)

Use in painting

Traditionally, blue has been considered a primary color in painting, with the secondary color orange as its complement, but this is not consistent with modern scientific color theory. As the mixing of pigments is a subtractive color process, the true primary colors in painting and printing are cyan, magenta and yellow (with black often added for practical reasons;

Blue pigments

Azurite
Cerulean blue
Cobalt blue
Milori B

Natural etalons of blue

Emission spectrum of Cu²⁺
Electronic spectrum of aqua-ions CuH₂O₅²⁺

Chronology

Key Dates:
1927: Albert L. Luce, Sr., builds his first school bus.
1932: Luce forms the Blue Bird Body Company.
1962: Founder Luce dies.
1963: Company introduces the Wanderlodge and enters the luxury recreational vehicle market.
1986: Blue Bird hires its first outsider to run the company.
1992: Management leads a leveraged buy-out of Blue Bird with the help of Merrill Lynch Capital Partners and renames the company Blue Bird Corporation.
1999: Henlys Group plc acquires Blue Bird.

Additional topics

Company HistoryMotor Vehicle Components

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