In article , Cub Driver
wrote:

And how do they name planes?

It seems to be a collaborative effort between the manufacturer and the
air force. Then, after the uniformly awful names are applied, the
pilots and crews name it something else entirely.

It used to be something that the manufacturer did. For example,
North American used the "thunder" series names (Thunderbolt,
Thunderchief, etc); Lockheed used astronomy names (Constellation);
Boeing used terms from the atmosphere (Flying Fortress, Super
Fortress, Strato Fortress, etc).

During WWII, some airplanes were first bought by the Brits, and
the Brits gave them their name. This included the Mustang and
the Lightning.

In the early 50's, there was a scandal about the name of the XP-56.
This was a rear engine airplane that made it to prototype stage
in the late 40's as a fast non-jet airplane to cope with the fast
planes coming out of Germany. The plane was named the Ascender.
It came out that this was a word play on the "ass end engine", or
the Ass-ender. From that point on, the Department of Defense took
over the official naming duty.

Prior to Fighting Bob McNemara taking over the DOD in the early
60's, the DOD pretty much used the names that manufactures suggested.
Starting with Fighting Bob, airplane projects became far more
political, and the names became part of the political game.

Some planes since them remained without names for a long period
of time, such as the F-111, F-117, and B-1. The F-111 was given
its official name only shortly before it was retired. Other programs
are given patriotic names, such as Fighting Falcon and Eagle.

The F-22/23 program started as a flyoff between the YF prototypes before
the winner was awarded contracts for full scale development aircraft.
During the flyoff, the planes used manufactures names, the Thunderchief
II and the Lighting II--designed to bring back memories of great WWII
aircraft. Once a winner was selected, the USAF assigned the name
Raptor to the F-22.

Another unique modern name is the F-14 Tomcat. Grumman has a long
history of building "cat" planes for the US Navy. This includes the
F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat, F8F Bearcat, F9F Panther and
Cougar (Panther was straight wing, the Cougar was sweptwing), F10F
Jaguar, and the F11F Tiger. When the F-14 project began, the Deputy
Cheif of Naval Operations of Air, Tom Conolly, was responsible for
the project from the Navy. The F-14 project became known internally
as Tom's Cat. The name stuck, and the official name became the
Tomcat.

-john-

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John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
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