I am trying to find out why airlines display the U.S. Flag in 2 locations on the aircraft. One location is quite logical the flag on the left side of the plane displayed correctly stars to the left and stripes to the right. But on the other side of the same aircraft the flag is displayed upside down. There must be a reason for this because all planes on all airlines display the flag in this manner. Help me out I shouldn't be losing sleep over this should I???? .

Welcome to FT>

Feel free to lose sleep... but at least post your sleepless requests in the correct forum...

Two posts and two incorrect forum posts...

This is a great community... but we do like posts to be in the proper place....

Not sure about the lose sleep part but a recommendation is to review forums before posting so that you post in the correct forum. And alas, this one isn't it for that ?. This one is for get-togethers of FTers.

Welcome to FT though. Cheers.

PS - I'm sure the mods will move this to travelbuzz or a similar forum...

this question was answered in (i think) TravelBuzz a few years ago when I first joined FT - it was one of the first questions I asked thinking the flag was wrong. I'll look for it and provide a link if I find it.

I don't think it's upside down but "backwards" (field of stars on the right, stripes to the left).

This is to give the impression of a "flag in motion". Imagine someone running forward with a flag held up. If you look at them from their left, the flag is oriented normally). If you look at them from the right, the flag is "backwards" (blue field to the right, stripes to the left).

The airplane in question probably has its flag oriented the same way. Correct on the left side, reversed on the right. U.S. Army soldiers wear their shoulder flag patches the same way.


An upside down flag is a universal symbol of distress.

And meanwhile ...

It's not upside-down. If anything, it's backwards, with the stars in the top right corner rather than the top left. The reason goes back to ships. A flag flown from the mast will - if its fabric is the same all the way through - look correct from the port (left) side and "backwards" from starboard (right) when it's blown toward the stern of the ship. Airlines continue the tradition by painting flags as if they were blown back from the front of the plane.

This post had a good discussion on the flags (much more than I was expecting).

What do you do if you're in a Japanese flagged ship?

Drink more sake?

so where do I post it??

Thanks appreciate your comments. Hopefully I'll place question in the correct forum next time, it seems to irritate other members.

If you want to review any carrier's livery visit www.airliners.net where there are plenty of contemporary photos of each carrier.

The flag is not a legal requirement on US aircraft (unlike Switzerland, for example, where it has to be on the tail), and the application can be inconsistent, but many do have it.

Regarding flag orientation, it has always been the convention that flags are represented as if they were flown from the front, streaming back, and thus on the right (starboard) side of the plane they can appear reversed, but it's just the same as would occur if you were looking at a real flag being flown on a ship.

I always thought the "upside down = distress" concept only applies to the British Union Flag (not Union Jack, please), where you have to be sufficiently knowledgeable to identify if it is upside-down, and thus it is a signal that "I have been taken hostage by foreigners" without the foreigners actually realising it !

Someone told me that with regard to the US flag, this expresses disagreement with the US government.

Don't like Dubya? Hoist your flag upside down!

With the US flag it's still the universal sign of dire distress. Since I don't think disagreement with the US government is cause to call 911, turning the flag upside down is inappropriate as well.

I guess that's for "experts" in distress only