Im building a website at the moment that charts the history of "Speedbird". Here's the paragraph of the front page
Speedbird was the name given to the arrow shaped device that was designed by the artist Theyre Lee-Elliott in 1932. The device was first applied to an Imperial Airways DeHavilland DH91 Albatross aircraft in 1938. The device was also used by the British Overseas Airways Coperation (B.O.A.C.) after the merger of Imperial Airways Ltd and British Airways Ltd in 1939.
In 1974. B.O.A.C. was forced to merge with British European Airways (BEA) to form the modern British Airways and the Speedbird device was kept until the airline employed Landor Associates to create a new identity in 1985. Despite protests from staff and members of the public, the device was deleted from the new livery.
1997 saw another change of colours for British Airways. This time to the more controversial "World images". Along with this came a new device called the Speedstripe. Whilst some argue that it mimics the early Speedbird device, the only part of Speedbird which remains today is the Speedbird radio callsign that is used by a majority of British Airways flights.
BA also use the callsigns "Shuttle" and "Santa" plus various others used by the franchise airlines.