What was there before the engineless 707?

Having been involved in the development of some of the UK road signage during the late 80’s and early 90’s I am not aware of an earlier official sign for low flying aircraft. Variations that have been used include the warning triangle with a blank centre and also the exclamation mark, both of which have a supplementary plate with the words, “aircraft noise”, ” sudden aircraft noise” and “Low flying aircraft”. There may have been other ‘local’ variations including the warning triangle with a plate saying “caution jet blast”.

Contrary to the belief of some motorists, the wind sock on a warning triangle indicates sudden wind gusts and not the presence of an airfield.

Unfortunately Irecently threw away my design notes for road signs, but the aeroplane symbol as shown on the warning signs and also direction signs to airports is set prescriptively set out on a grid on Department for Transport WM/WBM series drawings. The aircraft shape is very generic and given the sort of people involved in highway design specification, it is unlikely to be based upon a specific aircraft.

I always thought it was a Comet 4B??

Me too! I’m sure it used to look more like a Comet, but since has been evolved into a more generic design.

If the first pictograms for road signs were developed in the 50’s and early 60’s, then I guess the Comet would have been pretty much “state of the art”, and a likely candidate.

I assume any rework of the pictogram these days might show a slightly genericised airbus, or possibly the monster A380 (though that would have to be one very large sign 😀 )

Paul F

As long as I can remember, the traffic is warned for low flying aircraft with a triangular red and white traffic sign with some engineless 707/DC8 type jetliner in it.
BW Roger

I always thought it was a Comet 4B??

I’m afraid so 🙁

http://tinyurl.com/ysumcl

Rob P

Go on then, bid for it and settle the problem, I have a 1958 I-Spy annual somewhere as well.
My brother once won a feather off Big Chief I-Spy for completing a book without cheating, great, we could have picked one up out the fields.

…. anyone know what I’m talking about?

I’m afraid so 🙁

http://tinyurl.com/ysumcl

Rob P

DaveF68 may have it – there might not have been a standard picture sign prior to the current one.

All our signs were designed in the late 50s early 60s by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert and when a uniform signage system was introduced across Europe it was the UK designs that were adopted. See http://www.designmuseum.org/design/jock-kinneir-margaret-calvert

Our current signs are design classics.

Moggy’s link shows what existed before. It even shows one with an RAC badge – in the early days both the AA and RAC able to put up warning and direction signs. But allowing many people to put up their own signs means there might have been a rare aircraft warning sign out there in a single location. Anybody know?

Now if I could only find my 1950’s copy of ‘I Spy Roadsigns’, that would solve it, anyone got a copy? anyone know what I’m talking about?

Very nice, but as the web page belongs to a fictional country it isn’t a definitive answer.

It certainly gives an example of what it might have looked like.

Moggy

It is the style that warning signs were before the modern pictogram ones came in – althouth I’m not sure they would have had the aircraft sillouette either.

Just the warning triangle with the text in a rectangle underneath.

🙂

Very nice, but as the web page belongs to a fictional country it isn’t a definitive answer.

It certainly gives an example of what it might have looked like.

Moggy

Agreed! 😮

Very nice, but as the web page belongs to a fictional country it isn’t a definitive answer.

It certainly gives an example of what it might have looked like.

Moggy

‘Old style warning sign – low flying aircraft. This was a standard design from the 1950s that is still often encountered.’
http://arransia.speedlimit.org.uk/roadsigns.html

Interesting question.

The ‘steam train’ sign for railways, used in the UK, Australia and New Zealand (among others) post-dates any steam on any of those lines, being a symbol rather than word type sign – which is what each country would have used in the steam period, I believe. Even if that’s wrong, why persist in a ‘steam train’ sign 30+ years after the last steam ran on those lines?

Likewise the camera on the UK’s speed camera warnings is an old fashioned ‘box’ type camera rather than a ‘modern’ SLR type or a picture of a Gatso, IIRC.

Symbology in signs seems to lag behind current design – see the dial-faced telephone sign still in use, when most young people wouldn’t have seen one except in a museum…

Doesn’t help with the engineless 707 though! My guess would be signs would have a written ‘AIRCRAFT’ or locally invented symbol, being, up until W.W.II, a rare risk.

Just some thoughts!

There must have been a sign before the jets came.

Why?

Moggy

How about this one! BW Roger

I don’t know about only jets being loud. I was sitting in traffic and all of a sudden I thought my engine was doing something really strage, noise vibration, and such, then the shadow went overhead at about 100′ a USCG
C-130 on final. St Petersburg/Clearwater USCG Airstation

Thus?

Nice one! BW Roger

Some 8 or so months ago, I asked this question in a Dutch aviation mag, but so far without any response. I had forgotten about it, but this evening I received an email on how the Dutch Navy made these themselves in the sixties, and in theit signs there was that 707 glider. So I thought it was time to ask it on the forum. There must have been a sign before the jets came. But finding a proof has been difficult. BW Roger

Thus?