Why national flags appear backwards on planes

If you’ve ever flown on a plane, or in fact ever seen a plane (which I’m guessing is most readers on this site), then you may have noticed something strange:

A backwards flag of USA on the tail of Air Force One.

That’s right. Many airlines feature what appears to be a backwards depiction of the carrier's national flag. And it’s not just the US:

A backwards flag of Singapore on the side of the national carrier.

Qantas sporting a backwards flag of Australia, with the Union Jack in the top right of the flag.

Why is this?

To understand this intuitively, let’s take a step back and discuss the basics of flying a flag.

Vexillology 101

In vexillology, the hoist of a flag with the canton is always against the flag pole. This means that a flag may appear ‘backwards’ or ‘forwards’ depending on which direction the wind is blowing in.

The American flag’s ‘direction’ depends on the direction of the wind.

So what does this mean for planes?

Planes, like any object in motion, create wind resistance as they move through the air. While it is not feasible to fly a flag from a plane, the same phenomenon that would affect a physical flag apply to images of flags on moving vessels.

Stephen Forshaw, Vice President Public Affairs of Singapore Airlines explains:

“According to flag etiquette, which traces its origins back to shipping — and was reaffirmed in the earliest days of commercial aviation — a national flag should never be seen to be travelling backwards”

Flag etiquette, Forshaw explains, dictates that flags should be displayed on planes as if they were physical objects, affected by the wind created by the plane’s momentum. Displaying them as we would normally recognize (i.e. with the American stars in the top left) would make it appear as if the plane is moving backwards.

What this means is that flags on the starboard (right hand) side of the plane appear ‘backwards’ to what we’d normally recognize. In the case of the American flag, the stars of the canton appear in the top right of the flag, ‘leading’ in the direction of momentum, as per the image of Air Force One above.

Airbus highlighted this etiquette (entrenched in US federal regulations) in a tweet from 2018:

So does that mean that the flag looks ‘correct’ on the port (left) side of the plane?

It does indeed! On both sides of the plane, the canton, or stars in America’s case, lead the way, as if the flag is attached to a flagpole on the fuselage. On the starboard side, the flag appears backwards, as above. On the port side, the flag appears ‘correct’, as below.

The American flag on Air Force One appears ‘correct’ on the starboard (left) side.

Again, this doesn’t just apply to USA.

To reflect on the Singaporean and Australian examples above, other airlines follow the same convention.

Singapore’s flag appearing as we would recognize, on the starboard (left) side of the plane.

On the starboard (left) side, Australia’s flag appears with the Union Jack on the left, as we would expect.

Does this etiquette apply elsewhere?

While some adaptions occur, generally this convention is applied to any instance in which a national flag is printed on a moving object.

A good example is the US army. The American flag is displayed ‘backwards’ on the soldier’s right soldier, with the stars leading as the soldier advances (into battle).