BA Callsign

[shon7]

How did BA get the call sign "Speed Bird?" and is this the official callsign?

[bluepilot]

Years ago BOAC had a symbol on the tail of the aircraft (looked like an arrow (ish)) this was called the speedbird symbol and the BOAC call sign was speedbird. When BOAC took over BEA ;) to become british airways the BOAC call sign "speedbird " was retained, the BEA callsign "bealine" was dropped.

[speedbird_heavy]

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.

http://home.online.no/~vingtor/Mosquito/Speedbird.gif

BA also use the callsigns "Shuttle" and "Santa" plus various others used by the franchise airlines.

[Porky Speedpig]

it's a "speedmarque" not a "speedstripe"

[speedbird_heavy]

Thank you for the correct name.

[ratarsedagain]

You still hear the 'Bealine' callsign on the RT which is used by the ground crews towing BA aircraft around Heathrow.

[Kato747]

Thanks for the info on the origins of the "SpeedBird" callsign...... interesting...

I have a collateral question, however.

Why do we always hear BA drivers referring to themselves as, "THE SpeedBird"?

Are they thinking they are the only BA aircraft airborne at the time...or do they think sounding POSH on the squawk-box makes them sound cool, therefore more likely to get laid? Even heard "The QANTAS" last week......

:}

It boggles.........

[Grandad Biggles]

This is opportune for I have been wondering recently why BA use the callsigns Speedbird and Shuttle.
I know that Shutttle is used for certain flights to/from Heathrow, to/from Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester, but why? Why not use for other internal flights? ie Newcastle.
Why not use the Speedbird callsign?
One regularly hears the crew confusing the two, I guess because they have operated the Speedbird call sign earlier in the day.

[speedbird_heavy]

IIRC BA use "Shuttle" for domestic flights and/or positioning flights, where as "Santa" is used for the Dreamflight christmas flights and "British" is used by BA City Express.

Please correct me if Im wrong

Why do we always hear BA drivers referring to themselves as, "THE SpeedBird"?

You will find that quite a few airline drivers refer to themselves as "The XXX123". The only time I heard BA pilots make themselves sound superior was when I used to hear “XXX Tower, Speedbird CONCORDE XXX”. They added Concorde as if to say “Mine is bigger than yours”.

[147break]

Shouldn't that be "Mine's FASTER than yours"?

[Scottie Dog]

"Shuttle" is only used on certain specific routes as under:

LHR-BFS/EDI/GLA/MAN were the only routes that the airline operated as a Shutle service - turnup and go, with no reservations - hence the callsign.

The LHR/BFS route is of course now history as far as BA operations are concerned.


Scottie Dog

[Liffy 1M]

The inclusion of "Concorde" in the callsign was, I always believed, primarily to alert ATC to the fact so that they would be as aware as possible of the performance issues associated with the type. Air France did this as well as BA.

[5milesbaby]

ATC certainly knew concorde was on its way due to the almighty workload done even before it got airborne. They certainly didn't need the concorde bit in the callsign, and nearly ALL ATC staff refused to use it back as a rule.

[Re-Heat]

Concorde - not a heavy weight category jet but with a powerful wake and hugely different performance. Sensible inclusion for information of ATC service, just as 'heavy' is used in the US but not in the UK.

Shuttle refers only to shuttle routes, where the service operated a bit like a bus service - any further bookings beyond capacity meant other aircraft were substituted or more aircraft operating, meaning that you could always guarantee that you could turn up and fly the route as a passenger. Newcastle was never part of the 'Super Shuttle' network, as it was known by the privatised BA.

"The:"

"used as a function word to indicate that a following noun or noun equivalent is a unique or a particular member of its class"

"used as a function word before a proper name"

"used as a function word to designate one of a class as the best, most typical, best known, or most worth singling out"

Who cares which it is? There is only one of that flight number airborne at any time. Anywhichway it is 'the'.

[Spearing Britney]

Been wrong before, but last time I checked 'heavy' is used in the UK. On first contact with ATC the suffix heavy is used and thereafter not. In the US it seems it is used all the time...

[Re-Heat]

You're right:

Para 1.8.5 Cap 413:

Aircraft in the heavy wake vortex category shall include the word ‘HEAVY’ immediately after the aircraft callsign in the initial call to each ATSU.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

"THE SpeedBird"?

Only used by REAL ponces!

[Old Smokey]

Not terribly uncommon to hear ATC use "THE" preceding airline call-signs, e.g. "Follow THE Lufthansa via E7, THE KLM will be giving way to you" etc.

What I always found strange was the apparently deliberate dropping of "THE" before Concorde, e.g. "I'm flying Concorde to New York tomorrow", or "Concorde has operated it's last flight".

Speedbird, Birdseed, what's in a name?

[Lump Jockey]

Back to the original thread.... Speedbird was the first insignia, then didn't the Speedwing come along before the Speedmarque? I believe the Speedwing was the stripe with the angled front slanting backwards and down.
LJ.

[speedbird_heavy]

Lump Jockey

Go back to the first page of this thread and read the third post;)

[Big Kahuna Burger]

The convention (to which I believe there was some big discussion on at the time in the 60/70's) was that the French were going to call it 'Concorde' and the British versions would be 'Concord'.
In the end the Brits ended up spelling theirs 'Concorde'.

Its often Americans that you hear referring to tehm as 'The Concord' Youll find that almost anyone that had anything to do with her did not use 'the' as a prefix.
I am sure someone else will be able to point us in the direction of a website that clarifies all this?

[Hotel Mode]

Fantastic now i can be THE speedbird 7 HEAVY on my next flight, we'll get all the girls!

PS Dont think we're the only ones, hear The Virgin and The midland a fair bit too. Also whats with plurals like Easy's 7UG?

[WHBM]

Its often Americans that you hear referring to tehm as 'The Concord' Youll find that almost anyone that had anything to do with her did not use 'the' as a prefix.
I am sure someone else will be able to point us in the direction of a website that clarifies all this?
Attempted by me a while ago on another website. No luck I'm afraid !

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=294025

[Maxiumus]

"Air Canada's" are also much too fond of the plurals.

[spekesoftly]

Also whats with plurals like Easy's 7UG?
and

"Air Canada's" are also much too fond of the plurals.


Surely possessive, not plural? ;)

[Maxiumus]

spekesoftly, quite correct!

[BOAC]

A bit off-topic but I remember operating the BA LGW-VIE a while back ('84WW´) to be greeted (I think it was Maastricht) as 'Speedbird 84 Double Scotch':D

[av8boy]

"Was that for the Clipper?"

Part of an old joke, but I'm old enough to have heard it myself...

[robroy]

In the late 50,s - early 60,s and from then on, BOAC/ BA, have been known as, " birdseed "

Cheers,

robroy

[Lump Jockey]

Speedbird_Heavy, you mention a "Speed-stripe", nothing about the "Speed-marque" nor ""Speed-wing"! Get it right.
LJ.

[Human Factor]

If you ever see a BA jet flying upside down, you'll notice we share our logo with Nike!