The names of the planes

Maybe because they're so horny?

Other than that I don't really know

Why not? If these two beasts can be soft and fluffy, a jetfighter at least COULD be, too


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ever seen a tomcat in a fight? pretty amazing what that little critter can do.

www.aerospaceweb.org...
Did a lil hunting for why the F-18 E/F is called the Rhino. The link is above. Turns out the navy just picked the name for the plane seeing as they didn't want any confussion on the decks of the carriers as to which plane was leaving or coming back in. You don't want to ask for a Hornet and then classify which type it is or have some one half asleep and not hear you right. Its a big deal seeing as the Rhino is 20% heavier on take off and 30% heavier on landings.
hope that helps

Oh by the way I dont really mind the name Rhino that much either.

[edit on 25-10-2005 by Canada_EH]

that makes perfect sense. being ex-navy i can tell you that a few hundred pounds can make all the difference in a cat landing. since the "rhino" is so much heavier than the "hornet", if the arresting gear is set up for the hornet when in actuality a rhino is landing, you could quite possibly have a snap resulting in the loss of the aircraft, and a broken wire spinning across the deck cutting sailors in half.

Let's see here.

Grumman F6F Hellcat
McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom
McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom II aka Wild Weasel
The General Dynamics F111A Aardvark
McDonnell Douglas F15E Strike Eagle
McDonnell Douglas F15Active
Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star
Republic F-84 Thunderjet
North American F-86 Sabre
Northrop F-89 Scorpion
Lockheed F-94 Starfire
North American F-100 Super Sabre
Boeing B52G Stratofortress
B2 Spirit
B1B Lancer
Tu-160 Blackjack
McDonnell F-101 Voodoo
Convair F-102 Delta Dagger
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
Republic F-105 Thunderchief
Convair F-106 Delta Dart
North American F-107 Ultra Sabre
Lockheed MartinF-117 Nighthawk

What does that list mean? All the proper names on it are pretty good, others are nicknames or code names or (Ultra Sabre?) made up. I also just realised that (after what I said about two-word names) Shooting Star actually works! The exception that proves the rule maybe?

Tell me what you are saying with that list as, on its own, it carries no meaning that I can figure out?

We knew that meteor means a astronomically phenomena which be called a kind of british fighter, but what does shooting star mean?

Shooting Star is the same thing as a meteor but it doesn't come as close to Earth than what a meteor would. As far as the Ultra Sabre name goes, I believe they meant the third in the Sabre series fighters. For that one, they should have went with the Super Sabre II designation.

I think you misunderstood this one, it's referring to Raptors as in Bird of Prey. link

So the name isn't so bad after all...certainly better than Lightning II!

Yes, I've already had that pointed out to me, but thanks anyway

What about Rapier? Apparently that was the name chosen when Lightning II was rejected but it was later changed to Raptor.

Maybe they should have followed someone else lead and gone for 'StratoSabre'?

Actually the raptor os not called the raptor for the dinosaur but for the family of birds called the raptors (eagles, falcons, etc)

It follows the tradition of powerful birds but instead of going with an specific went for the generic.
I would also like to point out tht it is much better than the YF-22 name: lighting II

Umm, see above, at least twice.

THe USA has a few odd names for plane. Many of them areGreat Planes, but the names are very weird:

Aardvark(F-111)- Unless you're an ant, I can't see an Aardvark being very scary. It's a giant anteater! (Side note: the F-111 is a hell of a strike aircraft)

Pea Shooter(P-26)- Dose it just remind you of asshole in grade school with the spit ball? Utterly annoying, but not even remotely dangerous!

Corsair (A-7)- What is a corsair?

See, the US had some weird names for planes!

Tim

P-47 Thunderbolt also nicknamed 'the Jug' or 'flying barrell'

USN crews nicknamed the SB2C Helldiver "Son of a Bitch, Second Class"

Russians called the Lagg3 the flying coffin because of it's shoddy build quality.
"The LaGG-3 was made largely out of wood, and pilots less than impressed with the aircraft reinterpreted the initials as "Lakirovanniy Garantirovanniy Grob" - Varnished Guaranteed Coffin"

Other Lavochkin's were also nicknamed 'Grand Pianos' because of their polished wood contruction

Italians nicknamed the SM79 Sparviero, 'il gobbo maledetto', which means 'the damned hunchback' google for a pic to see why...

German Pilots nicknamed their 109's and 190s by names that reffered to their designation, eg Anton, Dora for FW190A and D models, and Emil, Gustav etc for 109 E and G models.

Stuka is just a shortening of some german word meaning divebomber.

RAF tended to give american fighters crap names in WW2, Wildcat became, Martlet and so on. P-40 Warhawk was renamed Kittyhawk or Tomahawk (not as bad but still pointless)

Wellington bomber was nicknamed the 'Wimpy'
B-24 was 'bananna boat'
'Stringbag' for the Swordfish,
''Shagbat' for the Walrus

MiG-25 'Foxbat' sounds cool, much better than the MiG15 'Fagot' MiG19 'Farmer', or Su-15 'Flagon'.

MiG29 'Fulcrum' is also a cool sounding name, even if a Fulcrum isn't particularly interesting.

Some more WW2 Russian and German nicknames on this site
wio.ru...

(is it obvious I play too much IL2?)

Ghost, as an American you should know what a Corsair is, don't you have a team called the corsairs? or maybe i'm just confused...

Anyway a Corsair is a type of Pirate...

Dictionary.com is my friend...

Anyway I already knew the name so dictionary is just for proof.

What is everyone's favorite? the A-7 Corsair or F-8 Crusader? I like both, but I think I like the F-8 best...

Yes the F-8, the A-7 wasn't nicknamed the SLUF for nothing.

As far as nicknames go, which wasn't the point of the thread but what the hell, a favourite of mine which I've mentioned before was the RAF nickname for the Gloster Javelin, its distinctive engine note coupled with its bulky shape led to it becoming known as the 'Harmonious Dragmaster'.

A brilliant nickname however was coined by the Japanese for the Bristol Beaufighter, such was its presence in the far east theatre with its armament of four 20mm cannon plus 8 .303 machine guns that the Japs came to know it as 'Whispering Death'. Isn't that just the best ever?



[edit on 27-10-2005 by waynos]

Thank you! I learn something new every day! Well done Ground Zero.

Tim

The BF109 and FW190 names you list are not nicknames. Anton, Berta, Cäsar, Dora etc. are the first letters of the German Phonetic Alphabet, or radiotelephony spelling alphabet. It is comparable to the "NATO phonetic alphabet" (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo ...). So these short names only refer to the Aircraft model.

"Stuka" is a short version of Sturzkampfbomber, which translates, as you said it, to "dive bomber".

[edit on 28/10/2005 by Lonestar24]