On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 11:29:36 +0900, Gernot Hassenpflug
wrote:

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the
Japanese to adopt a Western and incorrect form of their prized
aircraft designation system grin

But it was a Japanese system! And I suspect they adopted it because
they couldn't understand their own.

While the navy's short system was indeed copied from the USN, the
army's was unique, just a kitai (airframe) number, very simply and
impossible to mistake one airplane for another.

(Can you imagine the tower on a Japanese base, saying that a flight of
Type 97 Heavy Bombers escorted by a flight of Type 97 Fighters is
coming in, followed by a flight of Type 97 Light Bombers?)

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put CUB in subject line)

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