Whats in a name?

In the Century series we forgot one, no pun. The F-101, the one oh wonder.

I must say, I've not been reading these posts for all that long but this has to be at the top of my list of all time favorites. As already written, the wealth of knowledge that you people present to this discussion is amaizing. Where else could you gather individuals from all walks of life on a common ground to provide such information for the enjoyment of others. Thank you all so very much. I would like to add to your list a few pilotless aircraft and missiles that have interesting names also.

Loon
Regulus
Polaris
Poisidon
Terrier
Talos
Tartar
Mace
Matadore
Snark
Sidewinder
Sparrow
Tomahawk

And this is to name just a few. If anyone would like to add to this list please do. Since the end of WWII we have been producing a line of pilotless and piloted aircraft and missiles that stagger the imagination. All we have to do is look at what we have right now and realize it all started with the "Wright Flier".

Upnorth, thanks for a great topic.

Regards,
Richard

A couple of the posts in this thread refer to the T-37 as the "5000 lb. Dog Whistle." How in the world did it get that nickname?

I myself like the plane nicknames referring to violent weather, such as Hurricane, Tornado, Typhoon and Lightning. That's probably because I'm fascinated by violent weather events.

F-102; Duece, F-106 (with a gun); Six Killer, A-4; Scooter, and my favorite T-33; T-Bird. Acft will always have nicknames other than their official names. These will always fall into good or bad based on the person driving it or the mechanic working on it. Nicknames have not always been bestowed by pilots, but most are! Does anyone remember this one: C-124 Globemaster: Old Shakey or Shakey Jake.

I'm sure Lockheed doesn't know about this but during WWII folks here in the Philippines call the P-38 as Double Body.

Hey guys; heres some for you all,
C-5's are called FRED ( Fargin Rediculious Econmic Deseaster)
C-17's are called Barney (Fred's lil Friend)
F-117's Shaba, Ghost,

Rangerj: Hueys were "Slicks" if they had no guns (other than door guns). Huey gunships had various names like "Hog" or "Heavy Hog" depending on armament.

Some nicnames I like:

F4U Corsair: "Bent Wing Bird"..."Whistling Death"
P-38 Lightning: "Forked-Tailed Devil"
P-47: Jug
A-10: Warthog
A-6A-E: Intruder
EA-6B: Prowler
F6F: Hellcat
F4F: Wildcat
F9F: Cougar/Panther
CH-46: Phrogs
CH-53: will refrain for decorum
UH-1N/AH-1Ws (USMC): Skids
AH-1Ws: Snakes
AV-8B: "Arizona Lawn Dart" (bad rap a few years back)
Spitfire: enough said
Hurricane: see above
SB2C: Helldiver
P-40: Warhawk/Tomahawk
F-104: "Missile with a man in it"

Halibag for the Halifax comes to mind.
Flying Brick for F4.

QUOTE: The Bell UH-1 Iroquois got branded Huey from very early in its career, but was referred to as "Slick" in Viet Nam. Any body know where the name "Slick" came from? rangerj

IIRC, weren't the gunship UH-1s called Hogs and the the assault transport UH-1s called Slicks?

Also, I don't think the nickname 'Aardvark' for the F-111 was ever official.

The Hokum, or Ka-50 gunship is called the Blackshark by the Russians, I believe, which is a very cool nickname. The Russians also liked the nickname Fulcrum for the MiG-29 so much, they kept it, using it whenever they're promoting the fighter.

The B-52 is also commonly referred to as BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fellow [edited]), and the A-7 Corsair II is referred to as SLUF (Short Little Ugly Fellow [edited]).

The Bell UH-1 Iroquois got branded Huey from very early in its career, but was referred to as "Slick" in Viet Nam. Any body know where the name "Slick" came from? rangerj

Surprised that nobody has mentioned Boeing's habit of using fortresses -

B-17 - Flying fortress
B-29 - Superfortress
B-52 - Stratofortress

Exception was B-47 stratojet

QUOTE: Originally posted by upnorth I think the Helldiver was also called "The Beast"

They also called the Helldiver "SoB second class" (S..B..2..C)

My dad was crew chief on Curtiss Helldivers in San Diego around 1944-45.

Mike

Few Nicknames are so well suited for their aircraft as PHROG is for the CH-46. It actually looks like a frog (especially from the front), and it "Ribbits" in flight. I have no idea why someone decided to spell it with a "PH" instead of an F. Maybe it has something to do with FAT being bad, but PHAT being good. The CH-53E has quite a few very colorful and suitable nicknames. However, I must mind my manners.

Off the top of my head:
Almost all fighters have been referred to as "lawn darts"
F-111_ "Switch-blade edsel", "Aardvark", "Pig" (because of long nose)
EF-111_"Spark Vark"
A-10_"Hawg", "Sandy"
F-4_"Rhino", "Double Ugly"
F-16_"Viper", "Electric Jet"
T-37_"Tweety Bird" or "Tweet", "6000lb Dog Whistle", "Noise Converter" (coverts JP-4 to noise)
F-105_"Thud"
B-1B_"Bone" (BTW the second "B" stands for broke...ask a B-1 crew chief sometime)
B-52_ "BUFF" (Big Ugly Fat Fellow)
F-102_"Deuce"
F-104_"Missle With a Man in it"
F-15A/C/D_"Light Greys"
F-15E_"Dark Greys", "Mudhen"
A-4_"Scooter", "Heineman's Hotrod"
A-1_"Spad", "Flying Dumptruck", "Sandy"
A-1E_Same as A-1 plus "Round Face"
A-7_"SLUF" (Short Little Ugly Fellow)
C-124_"Old Shakey"
C-130_"Herk"
C-130A_"Roman Nose"
HC-130_"King"
SR-71_"Habu"
AC-119_"Stinger", "Spooky"
AC-47_"Puff The Magic Dragon", or simply "Puff"
AC-130_"Spectre"
C-5_"FRED" (Fat Ridiculous Elongated Disaster), "Pavement Pig"
C-141B_"Leaping Lizard"
UV-18_"Twotter"
KC-135_"Toad"
CH-46E_"Phrog"
H-21_"Flying Banana"
MH-6_"Little Bird"
AH-6_"Little Bird", "Killer Egg"
HH-3_"Jolly Green Giant", "Jolly"
HH-53_"Super Jolly"
MH-53_"Pave Low", "Pave Pig"
HH-43_"Husky", "Pedro"
C-177_"Gutlass"
BTW, The F-20 was NORTHROPS biggest mistake not the USAF's, since the USAF never bought them. Northrop's offer to compete with the F-16 for an export fighter. Their thought was that since so many counties operated the F-5, they would offer a similar airframe with the upgrades of the F-20. Yeager liked them.
Fingers are numb now,
Sal

ive all whays liked the AH-64 Apache

QUOTE: Originally posted by JGUIGNARD E2 Hawkeye ( which replaced the S2F "Stoof" ) : "Stoof with a Roof" Jim

Not quite -- "Stoof w/a Roof" was reserved for the WF/E-1B, aka "Willie Fudd" or just plain "Fudd" E-2 has always been known as the "Hummer" owing to the sound of it's turboprops.

Will Dossel
Last of the Steeljaws (VAW-122)

The "Duece" a 102, "missile with a man in it" the 104, and "hot rod" another nickname for tha fabulous A-4.Growing up in the 50s and 60s on AF bases I seem to remember the 105 refered to as "big hog" also.

A couple more.
Ju52 Iron Annie or Tante Ju (Auntie Junkers)
and another one for the B170 The Bristol Freightner!
Dai

I've been toying with whether or not to post this particular one due to its modestly rude and somewhat sexist nature, but from what I've seen put on this thread there's far worse names out there, anyway here goes:

The Bristol Freighter, due to the distinctive sound of its engines and the bulbous shape of its nose earned the less than flattering nickname of "Whistleing Tit"

Others I've founds out about recently:

Shorts Belfast: "Belslow"

Mitsubishi "Betty": was often called the "One shot lighter" by USN pilots because a single shot to the wing could send one down in flames as the fuel tanks weren't armored.

The Germans called the Polikarpov PO-2 biplane the "Duty Seargeant" during WWII. It was used by an all female Soviet Air force regiment called the Night Witches to carry out night raids on German positions and camps. The Duty Seargeant name came from its nasty habit of coming around and waking everyone up at some ridiculous hour and keeping everyone on pins and needles or, at the very least, just being damn irritating.

I've heard that late in its career the Avro Shackleton earned the rather distinctive nickname of "The Old Gray Lady" partly from her venerable age, distinguished career and the gray paint it usually wore in service.

In service with Finland, the MiG-21 was refered to as the "Bison"

here's another one for the Navy folks
A-3D:All 3 Dead(when they failed to catch the cable), Whale, flying gas station
F-20: F-5G; Shark, USAF's biggest mistake,
all Aircraft Maintainers call all airplanes they work on PIG's because they keep us at work late or bring us in very early to tend to them and they make the biggest messes

Here are a couple that haven't been mentioned . . .
British Wellington - "Whimpy" (for Popeye's pal, J. Wellington Whimpy
Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" after a particularly well-endowed nurse (look at the waist blisters)
Curtiss SB2C - Son of a B****, Second Class

Mine would be the P-51 of coarse...."The Mustang" or "Stang" for short...I thing Mustang really matches the way the pilots thought of the plane during WWII. Now when you think of a Mustang horse..you think of the best out of the other horses...and also the strongest. And when the P-51D rolled out with its Merlin engine, Bubble canopy, and streamline shape..it looked nicer than most of the other planes..not to mention the new level of high-alltitude and low-alltitude performance...giving the pilots an edge of the german pilots in 109s..plus it gave the B-17s the protection on bombing runs......so the "Mustang" matces the
P-51 perfectly.

Sorry, should have added this to the first post.

My vote is for favorite airplane name is the official designation for the XB-70.

The Valkyries were mythical beings in Norse mythology. They were angelic warrior women who took the souls of fallen warriors to Valhalla.

The XB-70 Valkyrie was fast, high-flying, and somewhat otherworldly.

And you know your time has come when a loaded Mach 2+ nuclear bomber is flying overhead!

QUOTE: Originally posted by Bayonet Recon Anyways, I can't find anything on the Internet to back me up on this, but if I recall correctly, during my time at the NTC the old-timers, who had been in for a long time and done border patrols in Germany, said that the Soviets referred to the A-10 as the Iron Cross or something like the "Cross of Death". Has anyone else heard anything similiar?

I've seen something like this. I think it was in Tom Clancy's book, "Red Storm Rising." In that book the Warsaw Pact soldiers referred to the A-10 as the "devil's cross."

If it was Clancy I'd say that's an accurate translation, given the guy's connections.

Lest we forget

CH47 - Death Banana
Airbus A320 - Chainsaw
Boeing 737 -200 - Pig

The Handley Page Hampden was also known as the Flying Suitcase.
The Short Stirling, which was a land plane adaptation of the Sunderland, was aka the "Largest Aeroplane to lift an Undercarrige". There were also some unprintable ones concerning its inability to climb.According to some it only climbed because the Earth is round.
Dai

ok

here's one

The flying coffin...now doesn't that just instill a sense of confidence...Handley Page Hampton...WWII british bomber

Just remembered a couple more.
Brewster Buffalo.......Flying Peanut.
I16.....Rata or by its pilots Ishak. Scuse the spelling but my Russian isnt what it should be.
The story behind the Aardvark appelation for the F111. Is that an Aardvark is a rare sort of pig that roots around at ground level and the F111 is a rare sort of aircraft that dose the same. This tale was told to me by a RAAF ATC working sector six at Sydney AACC. Could this also be the source of Pig?
The Mirage 3 was also known as a Miricle by the RAAF.
TTFN Dai

Harrier GR3 - Leaping Heap
Harrier GR5 - Plastic Pig
F104 - Whistling Coffin
A7 Corsair - SLUF - Short Little Ugly F*&%$"
S2 Buccaneer- Brick
F4 - Double Ugly or Rhino
Shakleton - 10000rivets flying in close formation
Beaufighter - Whispering Death
Tristar K1 - Timmy
Tornado - Tonka