Origins of Aviation Cliches

[Noha307]

I am pretty sure I first saw "brrrt" (the number of Rs undoubtedly a few more than I've typed!) in a magazine article as far back as the 1980s or 1990s - it is such an apt description! I'd point the finger of blame at Stephan Wilkinson writing for Pilot as he was ever the author of a memorable turn of phrase, but it honestly could have been anyone in an entirely different journal!

Always appreciative of comments like this. After all, you don't know what you don't know.

Anyway, it's not surprising the "word" has a long history given that just about any rotary cannon makes the same noise.

Bathroom Warning

Cheekily-worded signs posted above a urinal or toilet instructing pilots to stand close to said lavatory fixture are nothing new to me, but I guess I had always assumed it was a recent trend. Apparently not so according to a post in r/aviation I coincidentally came across only a day or two after my last post above. The picture shows one such sign at a "local flying club" at Kamloops Airport that reads:

WILL THE PILOTS WITH SHORT
PROPS & LOW MANIFOLD
PRESSURE PLEASE TAXI
CLOSER TO THE UNLOADING
RAMP AS THE NEXT PILOT
MAY NOT BE ON FLOATS...
       'the Girls'

What makes it interesting however is that the handwritten font, style of picture frame and water stains on the paper indicate that it has been in place for an indeterminate, yet long period of time. I would not be surprised if it dates to the 1960s or 70s.

[Stephan Wilkinson]

Nope, not me. But I appreciate the compliment.

[JohnB]

Nope, not me. But I appreciate the compliment.

Stephen, good to see you're back. It has been awhile.
John

[Noha307]

Airshow Spectator Steals an Airplane

Although the idea of a novice unexpectedly jumping in and taking off in an airplane at an airshow is now most well known to be performed by Kyle Franklin in his Ben Whabnoski Comedy Act, it is actually far, far older:

At many air shows he was noted for an act of which variations are still seen at air shows today. Quite often during one of these early air shows there would be an elderly woman thrilled with the spectacle of flight, walking around among the airplanes. She would always receive more than her share of attention because it would be necessary for the local police to escort her off the field, for her own safety. Often the announcer would politely ask the little old lady to leave the field. Some time during the event, the announcer would direct everyone's attention to a particularly important aerial display. When every eye was riveted on the airplanes in the sky, the little old lady would find her way into the cockpit of an airplane whose engine was quietly ticking over. Inadvertently she would ram home the throttle and make a daring and risky takeoff. The aerial display would immediately be forgotten and all eyes would be directed toward the little old lady in the airplane. There would be dives, slips, skids and steep turns, and the airplane would disappear behind a row of trees. Women would swoon and men would grow faint. Finally, after the announcer had lost his composure a dozen times, knowing that the poor little old lady would surely be killed, the airplane would come slipping in to a beautiful perfect landing, taxi up to the line, and out would jump the little old lady! She would peel off her wig revealing the incomparable Lincoln Beachy, the "greatest of them all."

(Source: Ted G. Misenhimer, Aeroscience: Basic Textbook for Aeroscience Courses (Culver City, California: Aero Products Research, 1970), 653-654.)

Note that this act would have had even greater impact in the era of barnstorming, when many of the people in the small towns that they visited could have legitimately claimed to have never seen an airplane before.

B-52 with Warp Nacelles

Remarks about the age of the B-52 are, appropriately, nothing new. However, extrapolating the aircraft's future service from that a bit is. For example, the use of names like "Centuryfortress" alludes to the growing awareness of the aircraft's potential for future service. (Contrast with the use of the "Stratosaurus" name.) This likely originated with statements such as those made in a 2007 Air Force Magazine article that the "USAF plans to keep a large number of these eight-engine airplanes until 2040". One way this has been popularly portrayed is by depicting the aircraft with it's engine pylons replaced with warp nacelles from Star Trek. It seems that this concept was derived from a 2008 comic attributed to "ALX & CF". However, it laid dormant for many years until the early 2020s, when it began appearing in photoshopped images on reddit and Facebook. The reemergence of the meme is likely tied to both speculation about the announcement of a new "B-52J" designation for the reengining program as well as the creation of the Space Force in 2019. Interestingly, the concept of an old strategic bomber flying alongside Starfleet starships - albeit with the original engines still installed - extends to foreign aircraft as well. A comic posted as early as 2018 shows a Tu-95 in the same circumstances.

This joke may be found paired with a copypasta about a soldier using a M2 machine gun on Mars, only for him to look down and see that it has markings indicating it was used in World War II and then adding his own.

[Noha307]

"I Follow Roads"

The old saw about what the acronym for instrument flight rules really stands for can be confirmed to go back to at least September 1962, when it was mentioned in an article in Flying magazine.[1] However, it is nearly certainly dates to a time far before that. Part of the issue is that it may have started out with slightly different wording. For example, a 1961 issue of Air Facts uses the version "I follow rivers".[2] (This formulation is supported by the existence of a 1929 newspaper article entitled "Air Routes May Follow Rivers".[3]) Alternatively, in the 1960 book Flights of Fancy, the quotation is given as "I follow railroads".[4]

[Noha307]

"This is your captain speaking"

Luckily, this turned out to be a decidedly easy cliché to research as, unlike a number of others, the wording has essentially remained unchanged over time. The one wrinkle is that the phrase shows up quite frequently in the pre-World War II-era on ships. For example, it shows up in this context in a 1930 issue of National Geographic magazine.[1] However, the earliest instance in aviation that could be found after a quick search dates to 1950:

 Then the public address system in the plane
cleared its throat and a solemn, measured voice
said:
 "This is your captain speaking. (Pause)
Some trouble has developed in No. 2 engine.
(Pause) We are going back to New York. An-
other plane is ready for us there."

(Source: Joe Collier, "Jungle Jaunt," Cleveland Press, 13 April 1950, 33.)

Note how that the further cliché of long pauses (or stretching out words) has already worked its way into the depiction of the statement.

One aspect that may help pin down when the phrase became popular is that its use more or less requires the existence of a public address system in the aircraft. (Yes, technically, the captain could be yelling it at the passengers, but somehow that doesn't seem likely.) Note that the example above actually specifically mentions the "public address system". (For reference, this instance takes place aboard a Trans-World Airlines Lockheed Constellation.) So, if you can find when speakers became common in aircraft cabins, you might determine when the phrase was first used in aviation.

Last edited by Noha307 on Tue Aug 12, 2025 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Noha307]

Bucket of "Prop Wash"

This turned out to be an interesting one. First, the earliest reference to this term in the context of a snipe hunt can be found in a 1925 article from the Baltimore Sun subtitled "Phillips Field Provides Many Men With Opportunities for Playing Pranks on Rookies":

    SOME NEVER LEARN

 Most of the men make these journeys
because of their ignorance of the work.
Fortunately they become familiar with
the life and later take revenge on others
that join up.
 There are some, however, who never
seem to wise up. Such was the case of
a man who earned himself through the
following incident the name of "Prop
Wash."
 For the third time the operations of-
ficer stepped out of his shack on the
flying field and searched the sky for
an overdue plane. Then his gaze wan-
dered about the quiet field.
 "Confound it," he thought, "what in
thunder is that man mixing? He's been
stirring something in that bucket nearly
all afternoon. Guess I'll have to see."

   MIXING "PROP WASH"

 As the officer approached the man
stopped his persistent stirring, rose and
gave an awkward salute.
 "What are you mixing in that
bucket?"
 "Prop wash, sir."
 "Prop wash? Let me see what that is.
The officer looked into the bucket and
then at the man.
 "How long have you been here?"
 "I joined up last week, sir. The
sergeant sent me for this prop wash
right after lunch. It's to be used in
washing the propellers, sir, but it
seems to unmix when I stop stirring."

  LEARNING THE DIFFICULTY

 "Yes, I know. It takes a lot of mix-
ing. Better keep at it an hour more
and if it still refuses to mix this slip
will tell you the cause of the trouble."
The officer wrote a on a slip of paper
and handed it to the man.
 After an hour of tiresome stirring the
ingredients of the bucket were still un-
mixed. The man opened the slip of paper
and read:
 "Oil and water won't mix."

(Source: "Air Service Work Hard, But Has Its Fun Too," Baltimore Sun, 17 May 1925, 2.)

The modern version - sending someone on a wild goose chase to different departments for an item - does also exist in the article, but instead of "prop wash" the hapless rookie is sent looking for something called "glide":

    THEY HUNT FOR "GLIDE."

 When a batch of recruits starts work
on the line there are some of the men
who have to keep out of sight for fear
of exploding. Only a strong man can
keep his face in order when a dreamy-
eyed youth with a bucket dangling on
his arm approaches and in a hesitating
voice says:
 "Sergeant, will you let me have a
bucket of glide?"
 And be able to reply seriously:
 "No, we're all out of glide today. Try
the garage."
 The earnest seeker for glide wanders
from garage to supply to motor over-
haul until some kind soldier wises him
up.

(Source: "Air Service Work Hard, But Has Its Fun Too," Baltimore Sun, 17 May 1925, 2.)

"Only a strong man can keep his face in order when a dreamy-eyed youth with a bucket dangling from his arm says, 'Sergeant, will you let me have a bucket of glider.'"

At some point, it seems the two merged.

Where it gets interesting is when you get to the 1940s. Searching for "prop wash" on Newspapers.com of course finds you a lot of examples of the term used according to their proper definitions. However, it also reveals a number of "goings on" type columns that use it as a title.[1] These tend to particularly date to the 1940s. One use is particularly insightful. An 1942 newspaper article about the work that the hard work ground crews performed at Shaw Field in South Carolina includes the following passage:

 With the plane in the air,
Joe assists other mechanics or
sits around with other line men in
a "prop wash" session.

(Source: "Shaw Field Drive for Mechanics Shifts Into High Gear," The State, 13 September 1942, 1-D.)

Here, "prop wash" is being used as a byword for "sugar session" – and given that the aforementioned columns are in many ways nothing more than the printed form of such discussions, it is natural that the terms would be transplanted onto them. Clearly by this point it has grown beyond its original meaning to become an idiomatic expression referring to insider knowledge or rumors. To put it another way, it was aviation's version of "scuttlebutt". Furthermore, the connection to the original meaning can be seen as these "informal conclaves" are quite the type of situation where calls for a junior member to go procure some non-existent object may arise. By 1944, "prop wash" is popular enough that it is actually used as the name of a variety show put on by servicemen at Millville Army Air Field.[2] Again, the connection to the original meaning can be seen, as a variety show would of course feature the type of hijinks that created the phrase in the first place.

As an aside, note also that the term is placed in quotation marks, indicating that it is a phrase the author feels the reader will not be familiar with. The most fascinating case I have come across of this is in a book from 1940 titled Fighting Planes of the World:

 The airplane has become the most effective weapon in the history of man-
kind, and its various uses in "World War II" have changed all conceptions of
warfare. Its ascendancy has been meteoric, being concentrated in that quarter
of a century between the first World War, when only a few hundred planes were
to be found in the armed forces of all the powers at the outbreak, and the present
time when military strength is to be computed by the quality and quantity of
fighting aircraft.
 In the early days of the World War, airplanes were used chiefly for observa-
tion and scouting missions, and, as a matter of fact, this work was done without
arms for protection or fighting.

(Source: Bernard A. Law, Fighting Planes of the World (Random House, 1940), 1.)

In the span of two paragraphs the author: 1) puts the phrase World War II in quotation marks, 2) does not capitalize the word "first" in "first World War" and 3) refers to said conflict with a definite article and no qualification as "the World War". All of this is to say that the term "World War II" was only just starting to become popular. (As a further indication of the evolution of language, the author also describes flying as a "gay and adventurous sport" in the following sentence.)

On a final note, as timing is so critical in this case and the copyright date only going so far as to mention the year, it is worth mentioning that the illustration on the page opposite purports to depicts an aerial action that took place on "November 6th, 1939". Furthermore, an illustration on page 33 shows German paratroopers descending from Ju 52s onto "Holland" – an event that occurred on 10 May 1940. Therefore, the book could have been published no earlier than that date. Although the writing of a book obviously takes place a while before its publication, this gives us a rough approximation of when the phrase was coming into vogue.

[Noha307]

"Blueprint" Paint Schemes

Paint schemes identifying (and sometimes jokingly explaining) the various components (and sometimes cargo) of an aircraft have become more popular as of late, with the concept being used on the "Blueprint" livery of a JetBlue E190, N304JB, in 2017 and the "Flying 101" makings on a Kulula Boeing 737-800, ZS-ZWP, in 2010. However, the other day I was surprised to learn that the idea appears to have originated decades earlier with one of the Piper PA-31T Cheyenne prototypes, N441PT, 31T-7400004. The aircraft was seen at the Farnborough Airshow in 1974 wearing an overall blue paint scheme with white markings identifying the various components of the aircraft.

[Hooligan2]

I remember seeing pics of the blueprint Cheyenne at the time - unfortunately I didn't see it in the flesh as the first time I attended Farnborough wasn't until until 1978!