Speedbird
 

Do BA still use this callsign?

Yes, except for domestic flights which use 'Shuttle'.

I'm intrigued, why is that?

I think (to be corrected) that the c/s shuttle was used to indicate domestic flights, speedbird was used, as per logo, for all other flights.

The Speedbird logo goes back as far as Imperial Airways in the 1930's.
BA doesn't seem keen to remember the company's history so it's nice that the callsign survives.

Shuttle was introduced when the trunk domestics were turn up and fly, guaranteed a seat. A back up aircraft was on standby for when the first one was full- sometimes a Viscount or One Eleven backing up a Trident.

It has survived into an era when this is no longer the case.

Correct.

Domestic services from LHR and LGW are flightplanned as SHTxxxx (usually an alphanumeric where the number bit indicates the route) and corresponding ICAO callsign "Shuttle".

The 'Speedbird' was the name given to the iconic trianglar bird design first adopted by Imperial Airways. When aircraft were required to use a callsign the pilots used the 'Speedbird' callsign as the design was recognised as being attributed to Imperial.

When BOAC came about they took the Speedbird logo and the callsign with them.

Hence it's still in use today.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../Speedbird.png

The Gatwick - Jersey flights do not use the "shuttle" call sign. They use " speed bird".

At a place I worked it was always pronounced "Bird seed".... not on the R/T of course!

That could be because technically speaking it's not a true "domestic" flight.

Just to annoy you lot.

When we flew around the northern isles we used "Speedbird".

At some time there used to be a callsign "Bealine".

For a while "Albion" was used by domestics.

We always used "Speedbird" in BOAC.

As I recall, may have been wound up, when BEA and BOAC amalgamated a comittee was formed to come up with a new callsign.

It was decided that Khartoum, and other places, could probably not cope with a new callsign for what had always been "Speedbird" and it was best left that way.

I believe "Bealine" is still used as a callsign but only by tugs towing aircraft around Heathrow.

I only had cause to visit it once or twice in my time at BEA, but I recall that the HQ at Ruislip (just by the Northolt runway traffic lights) was (re)named "Bealine House" (I think it was originally "Keyline"). Flights in those days certainly used Bealine as a callsign.

It's been discussed on Pprune before but Albion was associated with British Airways Regional Division in the 1970s, i.e. the combined BEA, Northeast and Cambrian Viscount fleets. I have a vague recollection of the Leeds Bradford fleet (at least) using the Albion callsign with the last two letters of the aircraft registration, e.g. Albion Echo X-ray (G-APEX). However, I was a mere bairn at the time so I could be wrong.

IIRC, BA Regional had their own designator as well to accompany the Albion callsign. BZ rings a bell.

Although BA came formally into being on 1 April 1974 it took some years to become a unitary organisation. Until 1976 ex BEA routes used Bealine and BOAC Speedbird. Northeast and Cambrian (possibly Scottish and Channel too) used their own callsigns as well. Northeast had it's own allocation of Viscount 806s AOYH/Y/L/O/R plus APEX/y

In 1976 Scottish/Cambrian/Northeast/Channel were merged into one regional operation. Some Viscount 802s were scrapped and the rest put into one fleet. For a month or two Regional's domestic flights (at least at Leeds) used BE flight numbers and callsign Bealine while the international route to Dublin was BA/Speedbird.

They fairly quickly reverted to NS flight numbers and callsign Northeast - suspect reports of calsign confusion on Airways and perhaps on Heathrow Director's patch led to this.

Albion and BZ flight number arrived c1978.

Bealine house was affectionately known, particularly by BOAC folks, as Teatime House.

And BEA was known to BOAC as the Hounslow flying club.

I don't recall the use of the Albion callsign but my brain is a bit addled now.

One Christmas Eve a Norjet Trident was given Aberdeen direct to Heathrow and did it in record breaking time. I was working in Approach Control and invited the crew up to see us, provided they brought the hosties. Soon after they arrived in Approach en masse complete with cases of lager!! Great days.

"Albion" & BZ were only around for a short time (2/3 years ?) in the mid to late 70s, as I recall. But, like you , my memory is somewhat sketchy ! I think that I can remember using it during my time at Aberdeen ('76 - '78 ) & at Jersey ( from '78 onwards ).

Why do airlines use a mixture of numbers and letters in their call signs. Years ago it used to be the flight number. Back in those days for example Speedbird 501 used to be the flight to JFK. Nowadays I haven't a clue what the first flight to JFK is.

'Bealine' was the BEA c/s throughout my spotting days in the late 1960s/early '70s.
I also remember the Norjet/Cambrian ones too. The NE VC8s and Tridents were easily visible heading down Amber One East from EGNM/EGNT.
Before ICAO flight-prefixes became 3 letters, BOAC/Speedbird was BA and BEA/Bealine was BE. I don't know when the Beeline c/s was introduced though?
British Midland's prefix was BD.
Britannia were BY, I think Monarch were OM?

The 2 letter codes were still in use when I joined NATS in 1979. I think the change to 3 letters was in the mid 1980s?

The Speedbird logo was designed for Imperial Airways in the early 1930s by a chap called Theyre Lee-Elliott, who when at Cambridge (reading Theology of all things) had spent much of his time on sports, being a tennis Blue and an England table-tennis champion. Didn't become a vicar but instead a freelance artist, where he picked up a considerable number of commissions, including the Imperial logo and name, which has certainly stood the test of time. It may be the oldest airline branding of all still in use.

Although BA don't use the graphic much now there is a permanent reminder done in the tile-work of Hatton Cross Underground station, next to the BA maintenance HQ.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theyre_Lee-Elliott

Interesting post from Airbanda. Only in a classic British state-owned company could so many callsigns be in simultaneous use - in what was (as far as the travelling public knew) a single airline business. Or am I over-simplifying ??

Possibly by the time Speedbird had been universally adopted, British Airways had walked from EGNM and passed their routes to British Midland and Air UK (1980). But they came back- eventually!

This is nothing compared to the major US airline hubs nowadays, where the dominant carrier will have every Tom, Dick and Harry of a subcontractor running "commuter" flights under their own callsign, while in the full livery and branding image of the mainstream airline.

That's until they have an accident, when the main carrier instantly distances themselves from the operator.

...The ceiling supports in the current Simulator Hangar (Old main maintenance hangar) are (supposedly) also a tribute to the Speedbird design!

Not too sure how they spell it, but recently Brussels Airlines ( formerly Sabena and lots of other names / constituents ) have been using 'B-Line' as their call sign.

How recent is recent ?

Well said WHBM, Airlines love branding but not the responsibility that goes with it

Not very.

The callsign changed from "Brussels Airlines" to "Bee-Line" with Issue 143 of ICAO Doc 8585 in January 2008.

Not been to Heathrow for nearly 5 years now, but I recall the BA maintenance tugs using "B line" call sign when towing aircraft to and from the maintenance area.
Also, back in my spotting days, (late 60s) BEA used "Bea line" followed by the last 2 letters of the registration. e.g. "Bea line Papa Echo".

B-line still in use for BA tugs towing aircraft between the maintenance hanger and the terminals. They don't need a callsign really, as they are easily identified by their maximum speed of 0.1 Kts per hour.

Thanks for the info....

Surprised that it's now almost ten years - heard it for the first time as we were lining up for take off in Dakar just a couple of months ago and spent five minutes waiting to see what was actually going to land.

My memory suggests that the original format of the Shuttle call sign was along the lines shuttle 1 Alpha where 1 indicated the route and direction (so, for the sake of argument 1 = LHR/GLA and 2=GLA/LHR, 3=LHR/EDI etc). The letter indicated the sequence so 1A was the first LHR/GLA 1B was the second LHR/GLA. By doing that they overcame any issues relating to flight numbers because they never really knew when they might have to insert a flight into the schedule.

I once asked a BA shuttle manager if he took any notice of reservations (because connecting passengers, in particular, could be booked). Well, he said, I did once ask just before Christmas how many reservations we had for Belfast and when they told me I borrowed a Tristar but I didn't really need it.

I'm guessing that's a reference to the cantilevers over the door openings:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/d...AVEL-large.jpg

I think any slight resemblance to the Speedbird symbol is coincidental, rather than intentional on Owen Williams' part.

That's pretty well how it still works.

Slight thread drift coming up. I remember in the summer of 1976 the LBA-based Viscounts were either in the new BA livery or in the old BEA Speedwing(?) livery but with British Airways titles. I guess the latter would have been series 802 aircraft, covering for any absent 806s from the old Northeast and Cambrian fleets, which would have been getting resprayed (for about the fifth time in their careers) in the new BA livery.

no sponsor

...and the tone of voice....( you'll have to have heard it to understand.........):E

"Require permission to tow (insert Bealine callsign) from the 'angar to the hapron". Usually in the gruffest voice ever heard......

With acknowledgments to Wiggy

There was also the Scottish gent "Request tow from the good-old Bealine base......." How dare he be so cheerful at 3am!!