November 22, 2025
You’re in a hotel room in London. There’s a coaster on the desk in the design of a Union Jack (or half of one, at any rate).
Very British, very typical. But you see something else. You cover part of the flag with your hand, revealing a different design.
Then you cover it a slightly different way, revealing yet a third design. Like this…
What you’ve created are the 1970s-era logos of British European Airways (BEA) and British Airways.
BEA was a mainstay U.K. carrier that flew throughout Europe. Its “speedjack” logo was a segmented Union Jack. In 1974 BEA merged with B.O.A.C to form British Airways. The first tail livery worn by British Airways also was a segmented Union Jack, a version of which is still used today. They looked like this…
The fact you noticed this with hardly a glance makes you both pleased and uneasy.
On the one hand, you take pride in a level of knowledge that some might call encyclopedic. On the other hand, you suspect there are better things for your mind to concern itself with. Your talents of perception, you worry, are badly off-balance, hijacked by frivolous aviation esoterica. Take it easy, man. Sometimes a Union Jack is just a Union Jack.
So it goes when you’re an air travel nerd. You can’t help yourself. The world is always more interesting when something, anything, relates back to airlines or planes. And it happens a lot. Maybe it’s a tangible item, like a coaster. Maybe it’s something you saw in the news; something cultural, political, or a current event. Almost always there’s a connection.
This is a testament to your passion. It’s also a testament to the significance, and ubiquity, of commercial air travel. The world would be very, very different without it. Probably less fun, too.
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