British planes tended to be manufacturer-based -
Avro liked British cities - Lincoln, Lancaster, Manchester, York, Short and Handley Page followed suit with Sunderland, Halifax, Stirling etc.
Hawker went for weather, with Hurricane, Sea Fury, Tornado, Typhoon, Tempest - revived today with the modern Tornado and Typhoon.
de Havilland went for insects - Tiger Moth, Gypsy Moth, Hornet, Mosquito, Puss Moth
post war jets went for the “V” - Vampire, Venom, Vixen, Valiant, Vulcan and Victor
I doubt any tank will be named after Custer because he got himself and his troops killed. All those other generals were successful. For another pattern, Boeing’s
“Fortresses” . B-17 Flying Fortress, B-29 Super Fortress, B-52 Strato Fortress. Only the
B-47 jumped the pattern with “Strato-Jet”.
In WWII, Battleships named after states, cruisers after cities, destrroyers after heros,
submarines after fish.
Ray
All the streets in my neighborhood back in the States were named after ships: Hornet, Wasp, Enterprise, Kensington, Shangri-la, Forrestal, and others I can’t remember. That neighborhood used to be a part of NAS Glynnco, in Brunswick, Georgia.
Just an interesting naming pattern from my personal life!
And just for some intercultural exchange, streets rarely have names here in Japan.
nope, not any more they arent. sub classes used to be named after fish. but thanks to some burocrat who correctly pointed out “fish dont vote” this tradition was broken. oh well. LA class subs still rock !
I don’t know if this is a pattern per se, but I love the way the British named their ships: Invincible, Indomitable, Indefatigable, Warspite, Battle Axe, etc. The Japanese had interesting names. If you translate the names of their ships you get the IJN “Lotus Blossom on a calm lake” or something like that. Those patterns are interesting. Of all of the presidents we have recently named carriers after, it’s interesting that they all served in the Army, not the Navy. John F Kennedy was the last president we named a carrier after who was a Naval Officer.
The US intel names for Russian fighters all start with “F”: Fitter, Fishbed, Fagot, Flogger, Foxbat, Foxhound, Fulcrum, Flanker. i think there are other patterns for bombers, recon and others.
I dunno about Lockheed though, wayne… unless Blackbird and the U-2 (does it have a name?) are star groups. on the other hand, i might not be thinking too far back, like the Vega and Constalation…
Some missiles were named after animals (mostly birds): AIM-7 Sparrow, AGM-45 Shrike (hence the name), AIM-54 Pheonix (sort of a bird), AIM-9 Sidewinder, AGM-65 Maverick. AA-8 Aphid, AA-12 Adder.
A few anti-ship missles got named after thrown objects: Harpoon, Tomahawk.
I dunno. “break right! there’s a frisbee coming your way!” doesn’t seem to evoke the necissary fear and panic… [:D] how about naming them after assasins, criminals or psychopaths? “a unabomber is on your tail!” or “John Wilkes Booth incomming!”??? [:)]
Shrike
Early Lockheed like Orion. Sirrus, Vega. I’m not sure when they got away from that pattern. Maybe with the Lightening?
Only Grumman fighters were cats. There was the Avenger torpedo bomber, the Guardian asw, among others.
Current Russian bombers are coded with B’s, Backfire, Bear. The cargo a/c use C’s, Candid, etc.