They typically call it car or auto wrapping. I found it very interesting too
for the very same reason. So far the ones I have looked at start looking
fairly unimpressive as you get closer. I suspect that most of that is
limited by the resolution of the original artwork or photo image data. They
print the images on a vinyl material. There are things that you can do to
keep the cost down. One is to do a partial wrap (only cover part of the
plane with the printed vinyl). The rest of the plane could be uncovered
paint. The other thing is to have colored cut vinyl for the portions of the
graphics that are solid colors and don't require the custom printed vinyl.

Some of the advantages I can see would be that you could have a design that
would be pretty expensive and complex for painting. Also, if you got tired
of the design a few years down the road, you could always change it. If you
have your own business, and you wrapped your plan with advertisement
information for that business, I wonder if you could deduct part of the
aircraft's costs on your taxes. Just some ideas....

Don Parsons