008 - Aircraft Nomenclature

Ever notice that a B-52 Stratofortress is a bomber, an F-14 Tomcat is a fighter, and a T-45 Goshawk is a trainer? What a coincidence!
…well, not really. And it’s also no coincidence that we in the West call the Chinese J-8 fighter and Russian Tu-160 bomber the FINBACK and BLACKJACK, respectively.
On this episode, retired US Navy lieutenant commander Josh “Popeye” Larson helps explain the alphanumeric naming conventions used to describe US, European, Russian, and Chinese warplanes. Be sure to stick around until the end of the episode, after the flyby, to learn the designation of the airplane we all know as Air Force 1.
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[@IkeThe9th]

No one else finds this fascinating? Very good episode.

[@FighterPilotPodcast]

Can't win them all!

[@gregory.chalenko]

Interestingly, before the WWII, Soviet planes were often called according to the role, similarly to the US aircraft: I for istrebitel (fighter) R for razvedchik (reconnaissance) U for uchebniy (trainer) But then they switched to assign the names according to the corresponding design bureau.

[@cbzgn38]

Boeing VC-25 Air Force One

[@FighterPilotPodcast]

If we want to get technical, the aircraft is a VC-25 and it's callsign is "Air Force One" when the president is aboard (or "AF2" with the VP).

[@FD1CE]

Great to listen and so informative. Love you Jell-O and your guests

[@FighterPilotPodcast]

Holy smokes, never heard of the FC-130, what did it do?

[@gregory.chalenko]

Junkers sounds really funny when pronounced like that :-D Never thought of an association of this brand with junk before. It's actually something like Yoonkers when said by a German.

[@johncipolla8335]

Ahh no Pappy boyington and His F4U corsair captured my imagination as. a kid

[@SkyhawkSteve]

this is an older designation, but "L" has stood for "liason". I'm thinking of Korean or Vietnam era, mostly. An example is the L-19... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_O-1_Bird_Dog

[@ericpress6192]

So I deliver mail and listen to your podcast while doing so. I kept up I think? Ha ha you put too little faith in us civies. I’ll tell you quick why I listen, having never served in the military.ONE, Jets are BADASS!!! TWO, I have 3 kids in the armed services; 1 in the Army (12B), one in the Air Force (Fuels), and one in the Navy (AO). I want to better understand what they deal with and your podcast seems to envelope a lot of who and what they deal with as well, even not being pilots. My Army kid is going through SAPPER school as I’m writing this and could possibly go through SERE training in the future. So thank you for this as my days are long delivering mail!!!

[@vikramjitkhangura]

How about plane designations during WW2 era? Bombers were B, P was for Pursuit- P38, P47, P51 etc. Were there any F designation planes at that time?

[@FighterPilotPodcast]

The F4U Corsair, for one.

[@doncalypso]

With French fighters such as the Dassault Mirage or Dassault Rafale the suffix "A" stands for prototypes. Suffix "B" (i.e. "biplace") stands for 2-seater and suffix "C" (i.e. "chasseur") stands for single-seat fighter. The suffix "D" (i.e. "discrêt") for the Rafale was for semi-stealthy a reduced radar cross-section version, and I think the suffix "M" (i.e. "marine") is for the naval version of the Rafale. The "N" in the Mirage 2000N stands for "nucleaire" which is a nuclear attack version.

[@FighterPilotPodcast]

Good to know!

[@marcourban899]

Very interesting (again!)! You mentioned that the numbers for the fighters were just numerically ascending. So where are the F-6, F-7,...? The next was the famous F-14. Even worse: after the F-22, the next plane was (is) the F-35. Were there so many prototypes that weren't making it to a version that came to service?

[@FighterPilotPodcast]

Good questions. Wish I knew but I don't!

[@kuiper921]

Some quick research got me this, taken from a quora article ("How does the Military come up with the Number designations for it's aircraft? I assume F is Fighter B Bomber, but why did we skip from F-22 to 35"), "After the merging, the new system started back after the F-11, with the F-12 (fighter variant of the SR-71). F-13 was skipped (superstition) and there was the F-14 for the Navy, the F-15 and F-16 for the Air Force, the cancelled F-17, the F-18 for the Navy. Northrop did not want the F-19 designation for its new fighter and got F-20 (it was a failure anyway). F-21 was given to Kfirs on loan to Agressors, and of course you have F-22 and YF-23. In the meantime you had a lot of experimental machines, up to X-35. When the X-35 was turned into an operational machine, they kept the number thus skipping F-24 to F-35. On the bomber side, there has been only 2 new bombers since the reset, so B-1 and B-2 followed the XB-70. The US Navy does not use the bomber designation. The F-117 is a special case, the name was chosen to confuse spies. Same goes I think for the SR-71 (there were never I think another SR plane)."

[@snowstalker36]

F-1 through F-11 are almost all redesignations of existing Navy fighters (same with the lower Attack aircraft). Generally if the aircraft didn't see combat in Vietnam, and thus didn't make the news under the new designation, everyone just stuck with the old pre-1962 one. Almost all the Attack aircraft did get in the news in Vietnam, so people recognize the new progression chain. Of the fighters only the F-4 and F-8 did, leaving gaps in the perceived line.

[@OmgReaverDrop]

India does build their own aircraft (albeit not as much as the other countries you listed of course). The only one that comes to mind is the HAL Tejas.

[@hrishikeshpadhye3183]

What can be the meaning of 2000 in the French Mirage 2000?

[@marcourban899]

As the year 2000 was the beginning of a new millienium the number 2000 was often used to express that something is new and ready for the future. I don't know if that was the explicit reason for the Mirage, but it would make sense.

[@jonathangibson9098]

Hey Jello! love the podcast. Quick question: Whats the green aircraft in the bottom left hand corner in the still for this p.c.?

[@FighterPilotPodcast]

OV-10 Bronco en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Rockwell_OV-10_Bronco

[@jonathangibson9098]

@@FighterPilotPodcast Ace! tyty! Great that you are still keeping an eye on comments on these older podcasts.

[@johncipolla8335]

VMF - Fariable Marine Fixed. ?