Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!snorkelwacker!apple!uokmax!occrsh!att!cbnews!military From: pstinson@pbs.org Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: USAF F- Planes Message-ID: <1990Aug10.010813.29946@cbnews.att.com> Date: 10 Aug 90 01:08:13 GMT References: <1990Jul31.023112.20171@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug7.040901.6955@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: PBS:Public Broadcasting Service, Alexandria, VA Lines: 29 Approved: military@att.att.com From: pstinson@pbs.org In article <1990Aug7.040901.6955@cbnews.att.com>, fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix) writes: > From: fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix) > > Which one? The Grumman F4F Wildcat or Chance-Vought F4U Corsair? > (To make things even more confusing, the Navy had different numbers for > identical aircraft made by different subcontractors. Like F4F Wildcat > from Grumman and FM2 for the same aircraft made by General Motors. Hmmm. > It's even worse, since they didn't follow the > convention all the time.) > In the navy aircraft designation system before 1962, Letters were used for type of aircraft and for manufacturer code. The number between the letters referred to how many of that type of aircraft had been built for the Navy by that manufacturer. In the example above the first F stood for Fighter. The second F was the BuAer code letter for Grumman, U was for Vought-Sikorsky (later Chance-Vought). The Wildcat was the fourth fighter built by Grumman and the Corsair just happened to be the fourth built by that company. The General Motors version of the Wildcat was the first (1 was omitted) fighter project for the Navy from that Company. The final number, as in FM-2 referred to model variations. There was an FM-1 for example which was improved to become FM-2. To further illustrate, the OS2U Kingfisher meant the second Observation/Scout aircraft built by Vought-Sikorsky. Various models included the OS2U-1 ; -2 and -3. Unless you know the system well, it can indeed be confusing, particularly since the manufacturer assigned code letters sometimes changed over time.