Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Aircraft Nicknames Message-ID: <1990Sep27.031434.6977@cbnews.att.com> Date: 27 Sep 90 03:14:34 GMT Sender: military-request@att.att.com Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 17 Approved: military@att.att.com From: att!utzoo!henry >From: Allan Bourdius >Why would referring to the aircraft as "F-117" violate the rules? If that's >true, then the USAF had better renumber the F/FB-111. That plane first flew >on 21 Dec. 1964, 19 months after the F-4C joined operational squadrons. The numbering was wrapped around to the beginning after the F-111; there are no legitimate F numbers higher than 111. The F-4 was in Navy service before it arrived in the USAF, and its number was chosen (as part of the unified numbering scheme) to preserve as much similarity to its old Navy number as possible. Current F numbers are working past 23, with a suspicious gap at 19 as previously mentioned. Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry