Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: As I mentioned next week in my talk on reversible time... Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: US Fighter Designations Message-ID: <1990Jul31.223607.6367@cbnews.att.com> Date: 31 Jul 90 22:36:07 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 176 Approved: military@att.att.com From: "As I mentioned next week in my talk on reversible time..." I'd like to add my $.02 worth to the discussion of the designations. My two pennies are marked with *** From: wb9omc@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) [...] P38: Lightning, Lockheed. Maybe also thank you Kelly Johnson?????? Twin boom "boomer" that the Germans called the "fork tailed devil". HEAVILY armed; in the pacific was the aircraft that shot down Adm. Yamamoto's plane. *** Also the plane that Richard Bong flew. He was the US top Ace of WWII. P39: Airacobra, Bell Aircraft. Sold lots to the Soviet Union during WWII. Unique design, never horridly impressive. *** Heh, heh. This was an interesting one. Had it's engine in the middle if *** the plane and a long propellor shaft through the cockpit. Was turbo-? *** at first until the government got a hold of it, i think. The gov't was *** also responsible for moving the engine back behind the pilot. not good *** if something blows. See Saburo Sakai's description of one in "Samurai!" *** He wasn't impressed. The Soviets, however, bought it in shiploads *** (pardon the pun :-) Was made all the way up to the P-39Q in 1944 or so. P40: Warhawk, Kittyhawk, Tomahawk; Curtiss, methinks. Lots of these built in several different flavors. Generally inferior to its opponents but given good pilots and appropriate tactics, the Flying Tigers held their own against Japanese Zeros until better aircraft could be delivered. Methinks the only American fighters to see action over Pearl Harbor (or nearby...) were of this type. *** Yep. Two P-40's got off the ground from a field (Which one? it is the *** field a few miles away from Pearl. Begins with a W...) and shot down *** two or three Japanese fighters. The P-40 had a very heavy nose, and *** made a beautiful dive-fighter. The Flying Tigers were taught by Gen. *** Claire. E. Chennault not to engage the Zero in it's own terms, but to *** Dive from above, fire off a few shots, scream through at a steep *** angle through the formations, climb back up and do it again. This *** tactic made the most of the plane's advantages, and even turned some of *** it's disadvantages into advantages, ie. the heavy nose. There are *** several books on this plane, most deal with the Flying Tigers, AVG, *** and 14th Air Force (same thing, different names.) AVG is the American *** Volunteer Group for the Chinese Army, led by Gen. Chennault and *** Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek (spelling?). [...] P47: Thunderbolt, Republic (formerly Seversky) Known to some as "the jug" due to it's shape. A heavy, powerful bird that excelled in the ground attack role in late WWII. *** Republic made two versions of this plane: one with the bubble canopy, *** and another with a "razorback." It was ugly, and pilots hated it at *** first, but they learned how to use it, and kicked butt with it. it's *** main advantage was the proliferation of armor. One poor pilot was *** flying a sortie over Germany and got separated from the rest of his *** group. He had two German birds empty their guns into the plane, and *** one even tried to ram him (he downed himself with this move...) He made *** it back to England where the ground crew counted a couple hundred *** bullet holes plus the spot where the 109 tried to ram him. He was *** given credit for the "kill." Can't find the reference, so if I got it *** mixed up, flame me. I'd deserve it if I did. :-) [...] P61: Black Widow, Northrop. *** Know why it was called the Black Widow? it was so hard to fly. I think *** it was an attempt at a night fighter. [mod.note: I've heard that the maneuverability of this aircraft was phenomenal, comparable to (for the time) modern single-engine fighters. Can anyone confirm or deny this ? - Bill ] P/F80: Shooting Star, Lockheed. Thank you Kelly Johnson. More people have probably seen a T33, the two seat trainer based upon the F80 and affectionately known as the T-bird. Many still flying; including one just seen flying at the Dayton Airshow. *** It was also the first Jet that the Thunderbirds flew. Commissioned at *** the end of WWII, I don't remember it ever seeing combat until Korea. *** Anybody know any better? Educate me. [...] F84: Thunderjet/Thunderstreak/Thunderflash, Republic Aviation. First jet to carry a Tactical Nuke, If memory serves correctly. *** Second jet the Thunderbirds flew. [...] F100: Super Sabre, North American. Nasty airplane at first but once the bugs were worked out, our first fighter to go supersonic in level flight became a very good aircraft. *** Another well made jet for the Thunderbirds. They knew how to use *** this one to its best advantage. [...] F102: Delta Dagger? (I get this and the F106 backwards sometimes) and I think Convair made this one. Delta wing. *** Yep. You got it straight. NASA is currently using one to study *** lightning. They fly it into a storm and dare lightning to strike. It's *** got marks all over it from strikes. They test avionics this way, but *** have insulated backups in case of a failure. F104: Starfighter, Lockheed. Thank You again, Kelly Johnson. Known as the "missile with the man in it" While never achieving great acceptance with the USAF, foreign countries gobbled them up by the s***loads. I could be wrong, but I think this was produced until the 1980's after having been built since the early 60's. Held several speed and altitude records until the Blackbirds came around and blew everybody away..... *** Also had a 25 foot wingspan! "Rocket with a man in it" indeed... F105: Thunderchief, Republic. BIG bird, used more commonly in Vietnam for precision bomb strikes, although I have seen film of big groups of them (15+) dropping iron in a fairly indiscriminate pattern. *** This was supposed to haave been developed as a nuclear strike bomber. *** Was a b**ch to fly, and if I remember, the Thunderbirds had one of *** their worst accidents in this bird due to its unforgiving nature. [...] F111: Now that's funny...I can't remember the name of this thing to save my life OR who built it. Now known as the FB111 and used as a "fighter/bomber" (ask the Libyans....). There is an EF111 Raven Electronics Jammer plane. Original swing-wing for the US. *** Called the Aardvark. Very versatile... used as fighter, bomber, recon, *** fighter/bomber, and I believe nuke bomber. F117: Name more or less not set. Nighthawk is the leading contender. Stealth fighter. Very secret until recently. *** Call it the Batplane... :-) ======================================================================= >Please keep in mind that I am sitting at work doing this from memory. >I really don't have good access form home, and I don't feel like dragging >all the reference works in to my rather crowded office. :-) *** So am I. Corrections welcome, but don't flame my mixed-up brain. :-) *** My brain hurts too.. how 'bout a beer? >The original Mk. I Spitfire had a two blade, fixed propeller. All war variants >had 3 blade propellers with variable pitch. Late model (post-war) Griffon >engined Spitfires may have had more blades. I've never seen or heard of a Spitfire with more than three blades. If you find one, send me a picture. :-) If you want to see something with a lot of blades, check out the next-generation of civvie transports with the counter-rotating blades out the wazoo! Supposedly works great though... Popular Science had several articles a few years back about this. Larry AYDLETT@UNCG.BITNET AYDLETT@STEFFI.ACC.UNCG.EDU