Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: newave!john@uunet.UU.NET (John A. Weeks III) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Aircraft Nicknames Message-ID: <1990Sep27.031451.7053@cbnews.att.com> Date: 27 Sep 90 03:14:51 GMT References: <1990Sep24.001340.22862@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military-request@att.att.com Organization: NeWave Communications Ltd, Eden Prairie, MN Lines: 50 Approved: military@att.att.com From: newave!john@uunet.UU.NET (John A. Weeks III) > 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. > It makes no difference if a number is out of sequence or not. How many of you > know what the F-110 was? What ever happened to the F-2, F-6, F-13? The F-110 was built by MacDonnel and was called the "Phantom II". F-110 was an Air Force number, while the Navy version was called the F4H-1. When the Air Force and Navy standarized thier aircraft numbering systems, the number F-4 was chosen. The F-111 was not really out of sequence. The program started before the great renumbering. The F-110 became the F-4. The F-109 was a Bell VTOL fighter that was never produced. F-108 was a fighter companion to the Valkyrie that never went beyond mock-up. The F-107 lost to the F105 in a fly-off. The rest of the century series is fairly well know. F-2 Banchee. Korean war era fighter, produced by McDonnell. Known as the F2H and F2H-1 through F2H-4. F-6 Skyray. Post-Korean delta wing carrier based fighter, produced by Douglas. Known as the F4D-1 (1951). Douglas tried to develop variants known as the F5D Skylancer (1956) and the F6D Missileer (1960), but they never caught on. The F4D was based on the F3D Skyknight (1948), which also never caught on very well. F-13?? I could not find a listing for the F-13 anywhere. I would not blame Grumman for not wanting the Tomcat called F-13 being that it was a "follow-on" to the ill-fated Navy version of the F-111. There is precedence for skipping numbers. P-73 and P-74 were skipped. The F-117 might not be out of sequence. I have heard rumors that the numbers F-112 to F-116 refer to various Mig and Su planes. I wouldn't even be surprized if the F-118 was a Mig-29...rumor has it that some of the former Soviet allies would do anything more hard cash. -john- -- =============================================================================== John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 john@newave.mn.org NeWave Communications ...uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!newave!john ===============================================================================