Seems to me that I heard that NATO intentionally gave ugly sounding names to Russian aircraft, such as Flogger and Frogfoot. There are some others, but I can’t remember them right now.
Anyone else know of this?
stinger
I alway like old british aircraft names, like Hawker Hurricane. the way the H’s follow each other / the link between aircraft and manufacturer.
It’s likewise with Fairey Fox, Bristol Bombay,Handley-Page Hallifax, Gloster Gladiator etc
The names were chosen by NATO like this:
B- Bomber - Bison Badger Bounder Bull Backfire Blackjack Blinder
C- Freighter- Candid, Classic Cat Cub Cock Camber Cookpot Coot
F- Fighter - Foxbat, Flogger,Fishbed Firebar Flashlight Fagot Foxhound Firebar
Fiddler Fargo Forger
M- Miscellaneous/Trainer eg Mongol, Midas, Mainstay, Mail mangrove Mandrake Mystic Moose Moujik
H- Helo - Hare, Hind , Halo, Hip, Harke, Hound, Havoc ,Helix
The Russians had their own names.
Didn’t know that. Thanks, oggy. [:)]
for the NATO names of the Soviet Unions Aircraft was done by the same person who named the Japanese aircraft during WWII but the differances is the Japanese planes where in catagorized womens names for bombers & flying boats, mens names for fighters, and trainer where named for types of woods, the Soviet planes are named for their roles, names start with B is for Bombers, F is for fighters, C for cargo, T for Trainers, H for Helio’s and so forth
Where I come from, an F-16 Falcon becomes an F-16 Viper when the 138th FW, the Tulsa ANG strap it on and fly. These guys are incredible. They absoulutely spank all of the Hornets they go up against down in Houston.
The pilots will always change the name if they don’t like the “official” one. I know that when the EF-18G Growler comes online to replace the Prowlers, the pilots will call it something else. I’ve heard Mongoose thrown around. Unfortunately, what the higher ups don’t realize is that a “growler” in Navy terms is…well…taking a dump! Not a very nice thing to call a plane, even if it is appropriate. (Disclaimer: The following statement reflects the bitterness of a Tomcat lover who can’t come to terms with an inferior platform replacing his beloved F-14, no matter how old it is).
like the F-117 “Night Hawk” and “Stealth fighter”
Stinger, this is true. The Tu-22 Blinder was originally given the code/reporting name ‘Beauty’, but this was altered to ‘Blinder’ on the grounds that ‘Beauty’ was “too laudatory” - the principle being that the names should be neutral, and certainly not suggesting praise for the aircraft.
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0070.shtml might be of interest. You’ll see that there were other alterations to code-names. ‘Fagot’ replaced ‘Falcon’ for the MiG-15 (again because ‘Falcon’ sounded too good), while the ‘Brewer’ was given that name instead of ‘Brassard’ to ensure that there was no confusion with the French Broussard.
By the by, when the RAF was attempting to find a name for the F-111K in the 1960s, ‘Firebolt’ was briefly in the running until someone high up in the RAF pointed out that a misheard report saying that ‘Firebars’ rather than ‘Firebolts’ were doing something might lead to World War III. It was eventually decided that the F-111 would be called ‘Merlin’ in RAF service, but the UK purchase was cancelled before it ever came to that.
the -117 is actually nicknamed the “stinkbug”
and the reason the super hornet is called the rhino is to distinguish it from the legacy hornet during CV ops (ie. cat/a-gear settings)
How about Fagot, Fishbed, Farmer, Foxbat for the fighters. Bear, bison, badger, blinder ect for bombers. Colt, Cub ect for cargo haulers. You can see the pattern. And I left some out. My aircraft rec. manual is still packed from the move.
When the 16 first came out there was a push on to name it viper. I’ve been told that it was partly because Battlestar Galactica was on TV. They ended up calling it the fighting falcon because there was another falcon in the AF inventory, the AIM 4 falcon missile family. So i was told at the time on our base.
As a former B-52 Crew Chief, I loved the BUFF, although that is not an official designation, by any means. The last “F” is sometimes censored for virgin ears. "B"ig "U"gly "F"at "F"ellow (censored version). There is also the B-1B Lancer, more commonly referred to as the “Bone” or, in some cases, the “Yard Dart”.
The F-111 does have an official name, at least it does now with the USAF. At it’s retirement ceremony, it was “officially” named the “Aardvark”.
like “Apache” and “Commanche”
Ok, guys, sorry for going way back to a Februari post, but I’m a little confused about the “Viggen” a Swedish friend told me that the name meant “Fins” or “Little Wings” which would of course make sence because of the canard configuration.
Either Gilmund didn’t notice this in the orriginal post, or my information was incorrect, which I doubt, since the word resembles another word in my own dialect (our ancesters were Vikings here).