anti-sub a/c

Yes!
That clears it up. The "F" was for Grumman. Not for: A, B. C......F. Those
were the days when you could picture the a/c by its designation. If you read
the "F" you could picture the big Grumman tail.

"Alan Erskine" wrote in message
...
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
m...
Alan Erskine wrote:

Oops. ;-) I meant, why wasn't there an S-1? Was it due to the 1960's
nomenclature change?


The first purpose-built ASW aircraft was the Grumman AF Guardian, it
preceded the S designation for such aircraft. The second purpose-built
ASW aircraft was the Grumman S2F Tracker. It was designated S2F because
it was the second ASW aircraft built for the Navy by Grumman. With the
Tri-Service designation system the S2F became the S-2. Why not S-1?
Probably just to keep things as simple as possible.

I think the AF was already out of service in the USN by the time the
designation system was changed; that might explain the abscense of the
"S-1". Thanks Steven.