Actually the change of name away from Terminator was an official one, because officialdom felt that it was way too nasty (in it's era), even for a bomber. Similarly, names that evoke feelings of too much or misplaced aggression, such as "Murderer","Assassin", "Annihilator", "Rapist"," Not Very Nice Person" or politically incorrect names such as "Imperialist Expoiltative Dog", etc have also been avoided

So one wants to strike fear into one's enemy with the names of the planes, but we obviously don't want to disgust them. On that basis, perhaps an appropriate name for a counter-insurgency aircraft designed to take on people like the world's drug lords should be something like "The Taxman" (I can almost hear a "Tattoo" type character yelling, "Boss, it's the Taxman, it's the Taxman", with the appropriate accent, of course)

How about "Junk Yard Dog" as a name for a fighter ? I think it would have been a much better name than Thunderbolt - big, ugly and mean

I may be wrong, but I think the Aussie name for the F-111 (The Pig) came by way of the Aardvark, as in "what the hell's an Aardvark, mate? - It's some sort of African pig, Cobber!" If anyone else has some other reason it got the name - by all means, don't feel shy about coming forward!


[edit on 2/3/06 by The Winged Wombat]