Whats in a name?

My all-time favorite - the P-47 Thunderbolt - was of course nown as the "Jug". It was also called the "seven-ton-milk bottle", and the "Repulsive Scatterbolt" ( and maybe a few others I can't recall right now ).

Some of my other favorites:

SBD Dauntless : SBD = "Slow But Deadly"
SB2C Helldiver : "The Beast" or "Big-Tailed Beast"
Beechcraft Model 18 : "Bug Smasher"
T-37 : "Tweety Bird"
F-100 Super Sabre : "Hun"
F8 Crusader : "Crud"
F7 Cutlass : "Praying Mantis"
A1 Skyraider : "Spad"
E2 Hawkeye ( which replaced the S2F "Stoof" ) : "Stoof with a Roof"

I also remember reading that when the first P-38's arrived at Guadalcanal, Marine F4Fand Army P-40 pilots referred to the Lightnings as "High-Altitude Foxholes".

Jim

Anybody know of nicknames the axis powers had for their own birds?
I'm sure with the tricky landing characteristics and weak landing gear of the Me-109, the Luftwaffe boys must have had a name or two for it.
Same goes for the unarmored and flammable Zero.

My Uncle, flying bomber escort in WWll in Europe called the B-17's "Big Brothers" and the B-24 "Slab Sided Barns". The BF-109 was refered to as "Messies" and I can't tell you what they called the FW-190.

He flew the P-51D 'Stang as he calls it.

The Germans often times used the variant suffix of a given aircraft as the basis for a nickname. Anything that was an "A" model would be called "Anton" (ie; Ju 87A).

A "B" model would be referred to as "Bertha" (Bf 109B, Ju 87B), I forget what the name for "C" was. ("Clara" I think) "Dora" was a D-model, "Emil" an "E", "Friedrich" "F" and so on. These names were derived from a German phonetic alphabet.

There were also specific names given to specific aircraft:

Do 335 officially called the "Pfeil". (Arrow) But it was also known as the "Ameisenbär". (Ant Eater)
Ju 88 was known as the "Dreifinger" (Three Finger)
Fw 189 was "Das Fliegende Auge" (The Flying Eye)
Do 17 was "Der Fliegende Bleistift" (The Flying Pencil)
Hs 129 was "Der Fliegende Büchsenöffner" (The Flying Can Opener)
Bv 138 was "Der Fliegende Holzschuh" (The Flying Clog) & "Mausiflugzeug" (Mouse Catcher Plane)
Me 262A-2a was the "Sturmvogel" (Storm Bird)
Me 262C was called "Heimatschützer" (Home Defender)
Ju 87G was the "Kanonenvogel" (Cannon Bird) & "Panzerknacker" (Tank Smasher)
Fi 103 or V-1 was a "Kirschkern" (Cherry Stone)
Me 163 was a "Kraftei" (Power Egg)
Ar 234B-2/N Nightfighter was "Nachtigall" (Nightingale)
Fw 190F was the "Panzerblitz" (Tank Lightning)
He 111H-22 + Fieseler Fi 103 was "Parasit" (Parasite)
He 162 "Volksjäger" (People's Fighter) & "Spatz" (Sparrow)
Ju 52 was "Tante Ju" (Auntie Ju)
Fw 190 "Würger" (Butcher Bird)

Many more as well, just can't remember them all! I'll see if I can come up with some German names for US aircraft too.

Fade to Black...

Oh yeah, how could I forget? In the 8th AF (as well as others), the universal name for fighters and bombers came to be "Little Friends" and "Big Friends".

Fade to Black...

Just happened to think of another one - Navy blimps used for ASW during WW2 were known as "poopybags" ! Hear that Goodyear ?

While we're thinking of the WW2 Navy, both the N2S and N3N biplane trainers were called "Yellow Peril".

Jim

Well S-3 drivers didn't care to have their Vikings called hoovers, with there low slung
engine pods, sounded just like the vaccum cleaners as they taxied along the flight deck.

Splash one bandit!

This web site could also be called history lesson.com

Not only can I learn a new tip. I can also learn that Movie Actor SO and So flew this aircraft, or this famous person helped us save fuel. Not to mention this subject. Or my buddy knows a pilot that flew with Boyington. Where in this world can someone find this kinda of information for free.

Thanks

P.S. The F-16 was also notorious for trying to suck unsuspecting Crew Chiefs into the intake

I just like the whole Grumman family of names. The Tomcat, Hellcat, Wildcat, Bearcat, etc. Just sound so cool.

Yeah, its like the British names for their fighters in the interwar and WWII period, all named after particularly vicious weather patterns:

Hurricane
Typhoon
Tempest

Good to see that fighter naming tradition carried forth postwar in such aircraft as the EE Lightning, Panavia Tornado and now the Typhoon II as the Eurofighter was officialy renamed.

Aircraft named after Mythological characters are also great:

Avro Vulcan: named after the Roman god of the forge and smithing. Any better way to tell someone the hammers coming down than to name your bomber that?

Of course McDonnell Douglas will be best remembered for naming their fighters after things mythological:
Phantoms (both the original and the II)
Banshee
Demon
Voodoo

What else: Lockheed Hercules, Canadair Argus, Lockheed Orion/Aurora, Shorts Scyla, DeHavilland Vampire, Martin Mars, Lockheed Neptune, SAAB Grippen (Griffin), SAAB Draken (Dragon).....

I doubt thats all, but its what stands out in my mind

Hi everyone ... great thread ...

I have always found the sometimes used nick-name for the F-117 Stealth Fighter... which is "wobbly gobblin" a cool handle.

It's all black, it flys mostly at night ... it is said that without the computer assisted flight surfaces ... it would be very "wobbly". The nick-name makes sense to me!

Oh, and what's up with the "Fighter" designation ... seems to me that this a/c is more of a "bomber"!

The F-111 and F-105 also got the "Fighter" designation though they were nearly exclusively used in the bombing role.

Where did my post go?
The S-3 had a habit of finding any thing on the flight deck the crew missed and the A-7 also sucked up people if given a chance (my brother saw it happen once). Also, the F-117 couldn't fly without the computer.
Can't forget the "Flying Bannana" even though I forgot the designation.

WWII British planes named after weather were cool, but so of the names they came up with...

I've heard the F/A-18 refered to as the "Plastic Fantastic" and the lovely F-4 as the "Mach 2 Bent Wing Bug Sucker".

Referring to my earlier question (axis power nicknames for their own birds), did they have any derogatory nicknames for their own difficult-to-handle aircraft? (Like "Widowmaker," etc)

The Tomcat is just next in Grumman's series of "cats". Wildcat,Hellcat,Tigercat,Bearcat.

One of my fave plane names is the "Spitfire". I wouldn't want to be too close to something spitting fire would you?

Claymore68:
I can't remember the exact designation on the "Flying Banana" but I do know it was one of the Piaseki twin rotor helicopters.

Anything with low intakes will be a vacuum cleaner. Have you ever seen the footage where a guy gets sucked up by an Intruder and actually lives? Somebody interviewed him about it about a year or so after the incident.

Surprizingly enough, the C-17 could also earn a vacuum cleaner nickname, I saw a picture of one at a British airshow with a stream of water from a puddle on the tarmack leading up to one of its engines!

J-Hulk:

I suspect the Luftwaffe had any one of a number of nicknames in the vein of "widowmaker" for some of its aircraft. From all I've read, the Me-163 Komet would probably have the bulk of them, You'd trully have to have nothing to lose before thinking to climb into one of them.

For the post war Luftwaffe, the only one I know for certain was that they called the F-104 the Flying Coffin.

F-117 "Shaba" Arabic for ghost.
F-14 "Flying Tennis Court" for the large flat area on top of the aircraft.
E-2 "Hummer" for the sound of thier engines.
F/A-18 "Lawn Dart" for it's limited range.
A-1 "SPAD" because it's propeller driven.
A-4 "Scooter" because of it's size.

F-16 "Electric Jet"
F-21 "Kfir"

or how about Vultee Vindicator or the Douglas Devastator?

I always liked the Army designations for its helicopters, named after American Indian tribes:
AH-56 "Cheyenne"
OH-13 "Sioux"
H-19 "Chickasaw"
CH-21 "Shawnee" (aka 'Flying Banana')
CH-34 "Chocktaw"
OH-6 "Cayuse"
UH-1 "Iroquois"
CH-37 "Mojave"
AH-64 "Apache"
or even the YH-41 "Seneca" (ten were built)

Some of those NATO combloc designators are interesting, too...
my favorite is the Sukhoi Su-7(-17/-20/-22)"Fitter"

FITTER out

We referred to the F-4 as the "Bent wing, Broken Tail, Coal burner, Ace maker".

In regards to "Hoovers", the S-3s nickname has more to do with its sound than any proclivity to suck things up. Especially on approach with the pilot making throttle adjustments, it made a sound very much like a vacuum cleaner going back and forth....

But in the spirit of airplanes sucking things up, I believe the A-7 was nicknamed the "people eater."

I am pretty sure that the A-10 was referred to as the Devil's Cross by the Soviets when they were still on the other side of the wire. I heard this from a "leg" who was statioined in Germany in the 80's and from my uncle who was a crypto type guy in the Airforce for a long time. Also if you read Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" i believe that the A-10 is referred to by that name also. Some referrence to the Russian Orthodox church if i recall right.

Cessna T-37 "convertor" Converts jet fuel to noise
C-5 Galaxy "Fred" F%$&*@$ Ridiculous Ecomonic Disaster
Stoof with a roof was the E-1B Tracer aka "Willy Fudd"
EC-121K Warning Star aka Willy Victor (Navy)
T-39 Saberliner aka Tinkerbell
C-124 Globemaster aka "Old Shakey" & "Aluminum Overcast"
B-36 Peacemaker aka "Big Stick" or "Aluminum Overcast"

How about the Skyray as Ford. Douglas hung sky on as many birds as they could. Lockheed named theirs after stars and constellations. Vought navy for swashbuckling, ( Corsair, Pirate and Cutlass). I never heard a good or bad name for the 130's in my squadrons.

Cessna T-37 "convertor" Converts jet fuel to noise
C-5 Galaxy "Fred" F%$&*@$ Ridiculous Ecomonic Disaster
Stoof with a roof was the E-1B Tracer aka "Willy Fudd"
EC-121K Warning Star aka Willy Victor (Navy)
T-39 Saberliner aka Tinkerbell
C-124 Globemaster aka "Old Shakey" & "Aluminum Overcast"
B-36 Peacemaker aka "Big Stick" or "Aluminum Overcast"

Only nickname for the C-130 I ever heard was "Herky-Bird"...
Neither good or bad.

The Hercules actually has a lot of nicknames, but its usually the special mission variants that you see them attatched to, some of the C-130 nicknames I'm aware of are as follows:

C-130 (standard transport): Herc, Herky Bird, Fat Albert, Big Fat and Friendly.
DC-130: Compass Call
MC-130: Combat Talon
AC-130: Spectre
Hercules W.2 (RAF weather research A/C): Pinnochio

Thats just the few I'm aware of, but there's a lot of different Hercs out there, so probably that many more names for them.

I'd like to see the full list of nicknames for the Boeing 707/C-135 family. They have prefix and suffix letters that take up the entire alphabet and then some and have such nicknames as: Cobra Ball, J-STARS, Sentry, ARIA and Stratotanker just to name a few.

Its interesting that we've noted a couple of situations where things are named along a common theme, fierce weather systems, native American tribes...

To continue this trend lets look at Rolls Royce aero engines in the post war period, with a couple of exceptions, they were all named after British rivers.

Derwent (Gloster Meteor, Avro Canada C.102 Jetliner)
Conway (Handley Page Victor MK.2)
Spey (British Phantom IIs, Buccaneer, BAC 1-11)
Tyne (Shorts Belfast)

And, the most famous of that series (drum roll please)... the Avon!
EE Lightning, EE Canberra, Nimrod, Commonwealth MK.32 Sabre... and many others.

Personal favorite: "Ascender" for the canard (tail-first) XP-55. An unknown Curtiss engineer (to me at least, if anyone knows this genius' name, let me know) came up with "Ascender" as a joke. I've always suspected that the reason the name became official was because some desk-jockey at the five-sided fun factory (the Pentagon) didn't have enough brains to figure it out.