Speedbird
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Speedbird is a callsign used by British Airways during air traffic control procedures, as well as the name for the famous stylized British Overseas Airways Corporation logo.
[edit] History
The logo was first used by one of BOAC's predecessor companies, Imperial Airways, debuting in 1932. A simple, yet rather avant-garde design, it appeared on the nose section of the company's aircraft. With the creation of BOAC in 1939, the logo was retained, and still appeared on aircraft throughout World War II, despite the military-style camouflage that replaced the livery.
The logo became far more prominent under BOAC, appearing on the tailfin as well as the nose section, and later enlarged and coloured gold during the 1960s. With the advent of air traffic control and the adoption of call signs to identify aircraft and their operators, BOAC chose the name of their logo to represent their aircraft in the air - Speedbird.
In 1974, BOAC was merged with British European Airways to form British Airways. As well as the callsign, the speedbird logo was retained unaltered, but returned to the nose section of the aircraft. A prominent Union Flag design now occupied the tailfin.
As British Airways prepared for privatisation, a new corporate look was adopted in 1984, which included altering the appearance of the Speedbird logo for the first time. Referred to as the Speedwing, it became a red flash on the lower dark blue part of the fuselage, though still bearing a resemblance to the original 1930s design.
Another corporate identity revamp in 1997 saw the logo evolve once more: it became a stylised ribbon shape (coloured red on the top side and blue on the bottom) that matches the shape of an aircraft (i.e. the shape obtained by sticking a strip of fabric onto the nose, and then removing the nose.) It is officially known as the Speedmarque and was initially surrounded in some controversy, causing the introduction of a multitude of ethnic "world design" tailfins that replaced the Union Flag on all aircraft except Concorde. The spirit of the Speedbird survived.
[edit] Variations
In addition to the standard Speedbird callsign, Concorde flights added Concorde to notify Air Traffic Control of the aircraft's unique abilities and restrictions. The Flight numbers of the BA Concorde flights were 001–004; BA Concordes therefore used callsigns Speedbird Concorde 1 through Speedbird Concorde 4. With the retirement of Concorde those flight numbers are now unused. French Concordes used the standard "Air France" callsign.
[edit] Today
"Speedbird" continues to be used by British Airways as a call sign to the present day, though many domestic services use the call sign "Shuttle". BA subsidiary company BA Connect uses British as its call sign, and BA franchise operators continue to use their own call signs, despite operating BA flights.
