Was The Grumman "Bearcat" Flown Off Carriers?

That's one of the points, you can tell the mfg. Doh!

"Thomas Schoene" wrote in message
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Nice Again wrote:
F fighter
8 eighth model
F Grumman

This has always seemed harder to me than the Air Force/unified system

F Fighter
16 16th type since 1962

Under the Navy designation system, the Hornet would have changed
designations from F5D to F3B (I think) when Boeing bought out McDonnell
Douglas. You'd have had nearly identical aircraft with two different
designations, probably in the same squadrons. Seems rather nonsensical.

(The same system had wartime Corsairs as either F4Us or FGs depending on
who
built them.)


"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
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"Nice Again" wrote in message
...

And the 'easy' way of identification was lost forever!


Eh?

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"If brave men and women never died, there would be nothing
special about bravery." -- Andy Rooney (attributed)

Nice Again wrote:
That's one of the points, you can tell the mfg. Doh!


It was was pointed out in another forum that you can tell
the manufacturer of an AF craft if the complete designator
is used. Such as:

P-38J-25-LO
P-47D-25-RE
P-51H-5-NA
B-17F-1-DL (Built by Douglas)
B-17F-1-BO (Boeing)

The Navy simply made it a more integral part of the
designation. I do not know if this holds true still in the
standardised designation system.

--
Lynn in StLou
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Nice Again wrote:
That's one of the points, you can tell the mfg. Doh!

I'd call it a bug, not a feature. If it told you the designer, it might be
of some value, but manufacturer names are often too fluid to be helpful. As
is, the system is potentially quite confusing, as the examples given before
can show (F4U, FG and F3B are the same plane!?!) It makes little sense to
use a system that requires different designations for the same aircraft just
because it was built by different companies or the factory changed
ownership.

Moreover, from an amateur's perspective, the Navy system makes it difficult
to instantly recognize which aircraft came first in production, or tell
which are contemporaries of each other. The F4U and F4D aren't even
remotely of the same era, for example, but you can't tell that from their
designations. OTOH, you can tell that the F-14, -15, and -16 came in that
order and probably realize that they are rough contemporaries.

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"If brave men and women never died, there would be nothing
special about bravery." -- Andy Rooney (attributed)

"Thomas Schoene" wrote in message
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I'd call it a bug, not a feature. If it told you the designer, it might
be
of some value, but manufacturer names are often too fluid to be helpful.
As
is, the system is potentially quite confusing, as the examples given
before
can show (F4U, FG and F3B are the same plane!?!)


Ah, but they're not the same plane! The F4U was, of course, the Vought
Corsair, and the FG was a Corsair built by Goodyear. But the F3B was a
Boeing biplane fighter of the late twenties. The Brewster-built Corsair was
the F3A.

Steven P. McNicoll wrote:
"Thomas Schoene" wrote in message
link.net...

I'd call it a bug, not a feature. If it told you the designer, it
might be of some value, but manufacturer names are often too fluid
to be helpful. As is, the system is potentially quite confusing, as
the examples given before can show (F4U, FG and F3B are the same
plane!?!)


Ah, but they're not the same plane! The F4U was, of course, the
Vought Corsair, and the FG was a Corsair built by Goodyear. But the
F3B was a Boeing biplane fighter of the late twenties. The
Brewster-built Corsair was the F3A.

Hmm, I think we just proved our collective point. :-)



--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"If brave men and women never died, there would be nothing
special about bravery." -- Andy Rooney (attributed)

You're obviously not a Navy aviator.

"Thomas Schoene" wrote in message
link.net...
Nice Again wrote:
That's one of the points, you can tell the mfg. Doh!

I'd call it a bug, not a feature. If it told you the designer, it might
be
of some value, but manufacturer names are often too fluid to be helpful.
As
is, the system is potentially quite confusing, as the examples given
before
can show (F4U, FG and F3B are the same plane!?!) It makes little sense to
use a system that requires different designations for the same aircraft
just
because it was built by different companies or the factory changed
ownership.

Moreover, from an amateur's perspective, the Navy system makes it
difficult
to instantly recognize which aircraft came first in production, or tell
which are contemporaries of each other. The F4U and F4D aren't even
remotely of the same era, for example, but you can't tell that from their
designations. OTOH, you can tell that the F-14, -15, and -16 came in that
order and probably realize that they are rough contemporaries.

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"If brave men and women never died, there would be nothing
special about bravery." -- Andy Rooney (attributed)

"Nice Again" wrote in message
...

That's one of the points, you can tell the mfg. Doh!


So what? With that system you wind up with multiple designations for
virtually identical aircraft. A Corsair could be an F4U, an FG, or an F3A.
Boeing, Douglas and Vega all built Flying Fortresses, but under the USAAF
system they were all B-17s.