Cartoon airplanes have a special way of making kids absolutely light up - there's something about a chubby little plane with a big goofy grin that just works. This collection of 55 cartoon airplane coloring pages is free to download as a printable PDF, and there's genuinely something here for every age, from toddlers holding a crayon for the first time to older kids who want a more detailed scene to work through.
These cartoon airplane coloring pages are ideal for preschool, kindergarten, classroom aviation units, rainy-day crafts, and kids who love cute planes with friendly faces.
Younger kids will love the simple face planes and big bold designs - pages with thick outlines and loads of open space to fill in. Older kids can dig into the storybook scenes, like the air race with three competing planes or the spy plane flying through a starry night sky. If your child is into aviation more broadly, check out our fighter jet coloring pages and our jumbo jet coloring pages too.
Every page downloads instantly as a PDF in US Letter and A4 - no signup, no fuss.
🖍 Coloring Tip:Give your cartoon plane's body a sky blue base coat, then use a brighter cobalt blue for the wings and tail to make the different sections really pop.
🖍 Coloring Tip:The planes with big friendly faces are great for practicing skin-tone shading - try a warm peach or golden tan for the cheek circles to give them a rosy cartoon glow.
🖍 Coloring Tip:For the nighttime plane scene with the moon and stars, try coloring the star shapes bright yellow and leaving the moon a soft cream to make it look like it's glowing against a dark navy sky.
🖍 Coloring Tip:Cartoon planes look great with bold contrasting colors on their stripes and panels - try alternating red and white sections on the body, then use a deep yellow for the wings to make the whole thing feel like a proper cartoon.
🖍 Coloring Tip:For the bumble bee airplane, stick to classic black and amber yellow stripes on the body, but have fun with the wings - a pale translucent look works really well if you color them very lightly with a silver or pale gray.
5 fun things to do with cartoon airplane coloring pages
All of these ideas use nothing more than basic craft supplies you probably already have at home. They work just as well at the kitchen table as they do in a classroom, and most of them take under 30 minutes.
Build a cartoon airplane mobile
This one's great for a kid's bedroom or a classroom ceiling. Color a selection of the planes from the collection, cut them out, and hang them at different heights from a wooden dowel or a wire hanger using lengths of thread. The planes with big face expressions - like the surprised propeller plane or the winking jet - look especially fun dangling in mid-air.
Use a mix of plane types so the mobile has variety. The blimp and the rocket plane make good contrast against the smaller propeller designs.
You'll need:
Printed and colored cartoon airplane pages
Scissors
Thread or thin string
A wooden dowel or wire coat hanger
Tape or a hole punch
How to do it:
Color and cut out five or six different airplane designs
Punch a small hole at the top of each plane
Tie a length of thread through each hole at different lengths
Tie the threads along the dowel or hanger, spacing the planes out evenly
Hang from the ceiling or a window latch
It's an easy craft that looks really impressive once it's up.
Make a cartoon airplane storybook
This idea is unique to the collection because so many of these pages already tell a mini story - the cargo plane dropping packages, the rescue plane with the spotlight, the spy plane at night. Print a handful of those scene pages and let your child color them, then staple them together in sequence to make their own little airplane adventure book.
They can add speech bubbles or captions on sticky notes to give the planes dialogue. It's a great activity for kids who love storytelling as much as coloring.
You'll need:
Printed scene pages from the collection (cargo plane, rescue plane, spy plane, race finish line)
Crayons or markers
Sticky notes for speech bubbles (optional)
Stapler or binder clips
How to do it:
Choose four to six scene pages and print them out
Color each page
Arrange them in a story order that makes sense to your child
Add sticky note speech bubbles if they want the planes to talk
Staple along the left edge to make a book
Kids who do this often want to make a second volume straight away.
Design your own airplane livery
Livery is the word for the color scheme and markings on a real airplane - and this collection has several pages that are perfect for designing your own. The rainbow stripe plane and the patriotic stars and stripes plane both have large bold panels that work like a blank canvas. Challenge your child to invent their own airline and give their plane a completely original color scheme.
They can name their airline, pick a logo shape (a star, an animal head, a lightning bolt), and draw it into one of the porthole areas or on the tail fin.
You'll need:
Printed rainbow stripe or patriotic airplane page
Colored markers or pencils
A thin black marker for adding logo details
How to do it:
Print the rainbow stripe or stars and stripes airplane page
Decide on a color scheme - two or three colors work best
Color the stripe panels in your chosen colors
Draw a simple logo onto the tail fin or nose using the black marker
Give your airline a name and write it below the finished page
Older kids especially love this one - it taps into the same creative instinct as designing a sports kit or a team uniform.
Cartoon airplane garland
Print a run of the simpler face planes - the happy face, the winking jet, the excited plane - color them, cut them out, and thread them onto a long piece of string as a garland. This works really well as a party decoration or a bedroom wall display. Space them evenly and alternate the plane types so it doesn't look repetitive.
It's one of those crafts that looks like it took way more effort than it actually did.
You'll need:
Printed and colored face airplane pages
Scissors
A long piece of string or twine
Tape or a hole punch
How to do it:
Color and cut out eight to ten face plane designs
Punch a hole at the top left and top right of each plane
Thread the string through both holes so the plane hangs straight
Space the planes about six inches apart along the string
Hang across a wall, window, or doorway
A string of ten planes across a bedroom wall looks genuinely great.
Cartoon pilot puppet show
The pilot character pages in this collection - including the girl waving from the cockpit and the ground crew member giving a thumbs up - are the right size to turn into simple stick puppets. Color them, cut them out, and tape each one to a popsicle stick. Then put together a short puppet show where the pilots and ground crew are getting a plane ready for a big flight.
This is a nice one for younger kids who aren't quite ready to sit and color for a long stretch - the cutting and taping keeps things moving.
You'll need:
Printed pilot and ground crew character pages
Scissors
Popsicle sticks or pencils
Tape
How to do it:
Print and color the pilot waving from the cockpit and the ground crew thumbs-up pages
Cut around each character carefully
Tape a popsicle stick to the back of each one
Use a table edge as a simple stage and put on a show
Simple, cheap, and it keeps kids busy for longer than you'd expect.
The very first cartoon airplane to become a famous character was Toot from the 1941 Disney short "The Flying Jalopy" - but it was the 1992 Disney movie "Tailspin" and later Pixar's "Planes" in 2013 that really made cartoon planes with faces a mainstream kids' entertainment staple. The idea of giving vehicles expressive faces actually goes back to early 20th century illustration, when train and plane characters were popular in children's books long before animation brought them to life.
Plenty more aviation adventures are waiting in our full airplane coloring pages collection - rockets, jumbo jets, fighter planes, and more.
Coloring Pages FAQ
Can I print right away without signing in?
Yes - just choose a page and print or download it.
My printer is cropping the image - how do I fix it?
Set the correct paper size and use “Fit to Page” or reduce the scale slightly so the whole design fits inside the margins.
Can I share what we colored with friends online?
Yes - sharing finished artwork online is encouraged, and you can tag us if you want to.
Are new coloring pages added frequently?
Yes - we add new coloring pages frequently, along with new collections.
Should I use cardstock or regular printer paper?
Use regular paper for crayons and pencils, and choose cardstock or thicker paper if you’re using markers or paint.
