When Airline France was formed in 1933 from the merger of various airlines, it adopted the logo of Air Orient, a hippocampe ailé (winged sea-horse), which has served as the icon for Air France and its parent company on and off through the years.
The a hippocampe ailé (winged sea-horse), which has become the symbol of Air France, was originally the emblem of Air Orient in the early 30s. In 1933, when Air France was set up, Air Orient gave its emblem to the new airline.
So in 1930 the a hippocampe ailé (winged sea-horse) was born. Looking for an emblem for Air Orient, Maurice Noguès, the organizer of French air routes to the Far East, asked the fifty people who worked at the airline's base in Marignane to submit their suggestions. They chose a seahorse, as a reference to the marine environment in which seaplanes operated, with wings symbolizing flight and speed.
Legend has it that Maurice Noguès was influenced by seahorses he'd seen in the Bay of Naples during a forced landing a few years earlier.
Having undergone several changes since its inception, Air France's a winged sea-horse today is still a powerful symbol of the airline and appears, among others, on its aircraft.