Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2024 May 15

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May 15

Why is there an iron cross painted on top of this building?

https://imgur.com/a/Rg2DpRy

In the image posted above, there is an iron cross painted on the roof of an NYPD training facility. A friend of mine said she's seen one in aerial photographs of a Naval building in Florida as well. What's the purpose of the iron cross? I thought maybe something to do with helipads but it's not standard markings. Thank you! †dismas†|^(talk) 15:22, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

Just a guess, but maybe a representation of the Police Combat Cross? Alansplodge (talk) 18:30, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

But it certainly is a helipad: NYPD Air Operations Heliport (Floyd Bennett Field) New York, New York, USA says "Runway edge markings: WHITE PAINTED MALTESE CROSS". Alansplodge (talk) 18:32, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

It's not a Maltese Cross, it's a cross paty. That said, our article on the Maltese Cross does mention aviation uses. DuncanHill (talk) 18:46, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

Ah yes, Maltese Cross#Aviation says:

In 1967, laboratory tests, and flight tests at Fort Rucker and Fort Wolters, were conducted to determine the most highly visible and effective way to mark a helipad. Twenty-five emblem designs were tested, but the emblem depicting four blurred rotor blades, referred to as the "Maltese cross", was selected as the standard heliport marking pattern by the Army for military heliports, and by the FAA for civil heliports. However, in the late 1970s, the FAA administrator repealed this standard when it was charged that the Maltese cross was antisemitic. In the United States today, some helipads still remain bearing their original Maltese cross emblems.

I suspect that heraldry is not a skill required of helicopter pilots :-) Alansplodge (talk) 11:40, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

The Iron Cross, which is often confused with the Maltese Cross, has been used by Nazi Germany. It has also been used before by the Weimar Republic and is used today by the Federal Republic of Germany. It is a bit strange to call the symbol antisemitic. The Nazis also used circles and the colour white.

The abolished helipad symbol did, moreover, not really have the shape of either the Maltese Cross or the Iron Cross. If they had faithfully represented the cross as the area swept out by four rotor blades in about one tenth of a full rotation, the four outer edges would not have been straight but like 36° circular arcs, making an association with Germany even less plausible.  --Lambiam 19:22, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

Unfortunately, since meaning inheres in how a sign is used and understood, and nowhere else, if a significant number of people apprehend a word or symbol as racist, antisemitic, or just plain offensive, then that is (part of its meaning) whatever anybody may intend by it. Telling people that it does not mean that is not only useless, but false. See pejoration ColinFine (talk) 14:51, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Meaning is not absolute. It also depends on context. In English, applying the term git to a person is an insult. In Poland, someone so designated may feel honoured. When a swastika on a Hindu temple is understood by a tourist as being antisemitic, it is a misunderstanding. It is neither false, nor necessarily useless, to point this out.  --Lambiam 07:39, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

In American English, "git" as an insult is unknown (other than in the Monty Python "argument sketch") but instead is a hickish pronunciation of "get [out of here]" (as in "go on, git!") ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:27, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

The only more disturbing news I got from the U.S. after those helipad pictures came after the end of the seventies [1], that was the Glock, not a mention of git. --Askedonty (talk) 14:52, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you all!! I'd done numerous searches for helipad markings but didn't find that the Maltese Cross used to be used for them. Thanks again! †dismas†|^(talk) 20:51, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

That airport's dated as fuck. Built to woo 1931 airlines from Newark but never did (too far from Manhattan), every few years or decades would get more irrelevant (every time a bigger NYC airport opened or aviation user left, most of it's been owned by National Park Service for 50 years, you can camp and fly model planes on the runway). The main cop thing's probably been Rodman's Neck for decades (a peninsula in a different side of the city). Tons of cop stuff there (i.e. buildings to practice SWATting probably also firefighting, shooting ranges, bomb squad practice tip, probably the only gun shop(s) in NYC...) Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 02:31, 21 May 2024 (UTC)