Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bu.edu!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: argosy!freeman@decwrl.dec.com (Jay R. Freeman) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Attack Plane Designations Keywords: designations, lists, summaries Message-ID: <1990Oct26.015106.24748@cbnews.att.com> Date: 26 Oct 90 01:51:06 GMT References: <1990Oct22.035508.17238@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: MasPar Computer Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA Lines: 40 Approved: military@att.att.com From: argosy!freeman@decwrl.dec.com (Jay R. Freeman) In article <1990Oct22.035508.17238@cbnews.att.com> jfb@ihlpm.att.com (Joseph F Baugher) writes: >Some degree of confusion has resulted from the fact that there were TWO A- ### >series of aircraft. The first A series of attack planes referred to aircraft >used by the US Army in the years between 1926 and 1948. The other A series >is an entirely separate and distinct set of attack aircraft used by all the >services (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force) in the years since 1962. Actually, there were three. As Baugher indicates indirectly, later in his excellent posting, the US Navy used the "A" designation for its own aircraft during a period that started some time after WWII and ended with the introduction of all-service identifiers in 1962. The "A" designation was used in the same manner as all the others: Thus "A3D" was the third type of attack aircraft manufactured by the manufacturer whose code letter was "D" (Douglas). Postfix numbers and letters indicated major modifications to the type and other esoterica, eg A3D2. If the first number would have been a "1" it was omitted; thus the Skyraider was the AD, not the A1D. In an attempt to avoid too much confusion, the conversion to the new nomenclature preserved as many of the old numbers as possible: Thus the AD became the A1, the A4D the A4, and so on. I have never been sure whether this created less confusion or more. There were many Navy types classified under the old system which were not issued designations under the new one, simply because they were no longer in service at the time the switch was made, or had never gotten past the prototype stage in the first place. For example, if memory serves, Martin produced a potential competitor to the Skyraider which was called the Mauler, and was designated the AM. -- Jay Freeman