GK posted this Salon piece to the Classics list:
To see the rest, you have to visit Salon and sit through a brief ad, but there isn't much more of interest there. If you've never seen Air India's logo, here's one source. My interest in this was piqued, of course, because folks may recall I expressed surprise back in April at an item up for auction at Sotheby's ... a second century centaur from Ghandara. (the details page at Sotheby's is still up)
Not that you asked, but we've gotten to the bottom of why Air-India employs the man-horse centaur of Greek mythology as its official logo.
Air-India's earliest long-range planes were Lockheed Constellations, the first one taking off in 1948. With the new planes came a new logo, and the plan was go with a constellation theme. The centaur, representative of Sagittarius, was a logical choice because it suggested movement, strength, and somewhat resembled the farohar, a Parsi heavenly symbol featuring a winged man, like a guardian angel. The Parsis are a Zoroastrian sect of the Subcontinent -- of which Air-India's founding family, the Tatas, were members -- and their farohar is a sign of good luck. Furthermore, incarnation of the Sagittarius brings forth, in the mind of many Indians, images of the master archer Arjuna from the mythological epic Mahabharata. Whatever the exact reasoning, the emblem was adopted and has remained ever since.
To see the rest, you have to visit Salon and sit through a brief ad, but there isn't much more of interest there. If you've never seen Air India's logo, here's one source. My interest in this was piqued, of course, because folks may recall I expressed surprise back in April at an item up for auction at Sotheby's ... a second century centaur from Ghandara. (the details page at Sotheby's is still up)