Whats in a name?

I like the stories about the hangar queens.

I remember reading a story in a book about the CF-104 era in the Canadian Armed Forces, it seems there was a particular two seat CF-104D, serial number 104666 that was no end of trouble until the day she crashed in a take off accident and wrote herself (but thankfully not the crew) off.

104666 was said to be a true hangar queen and the significance of the "666" in her serial code wasn't lost on either air or ground crews. Some of the names she got are as follows:

The Jet From Hell

The Devil's Jet

Tripple Pig

Tripple Sick

It seems there was much rejoicing when she crashed and was deemed unfixable.

The C-141 Starlifter...or Star Lizzard, or my favorite...the Tube of Pain

QUOTE: Originally posted by dkmacin Nick names change with the situation.

How right you are. When I was stationed in Thailand in 68-69. I was a crew chief on an F-4D, Ser No. 66-8711. The aircraft had a set of dice on the left intake with the name "Seven Come Eleven". Years later at Eglin AFB, we were getting brand new F-4E's dirrect from the factory. All had sequential ser. no's. Aircraft 69-260 did not arrive as scheduled and when it came my turn to get the next aircraft, 260 landed with an IFE (Inflight emergency). It had taken 13 flights before being accepted by the AF. It had 13.3 flying hours on it when it arrived. From that day on, it spent more time on jacks than it did flying. It was always having landing gear problems, flight control problems and radar problems. A hanger queen, from the day it arrived.

When we deployed to Thailand for Linebacker, 260 was the last choice spare for the deployment. I was in Thailand with the advance crew when I saw 260 taxi in. My first thoughts were, this is going to be a long TDY. We were told we could paint a name on the inside nose gear door. I painted "Too Sick Oh" and that became the name of the aircraft.

The jet flew an average of twelve to fourteen times a week and had only one flight where it came in "Code 3". That was the day Capt Ritchie flew it and wrote up everything but the paint job. I stayed with the aircraft till two in the morning (we were short handed), working and clearing the writeups from that flight, and came back in for a six AM launch. That morning the jet got its first of two MIG kills during the deployment, while flying BUFF escort.

On the trip home 260 came in to Eglin AFB on an IFE with a Utility Hyd failure. The jet got back to being a hanger queen again.

some WW1 aircraft here

the handley page: bloody paralyser
Hansa Brandenburg D.1(austria-Hungary):spider(for converging struts) or: coffin (chronic instability)

I may think of some more

B-52 BUFF
B(ig)
U(gly)
F(at)
F(ellow) or F.cker (You have to fill in the blank)

nzgunnie: should be "la muerte negra". I am an over-educated lout.

Nick names change with the situation.
If you are talking about an aircraft that returned from missions with no gripes, it was a sweet heart, (sweetie, good bird, golden, work horse, etc.) if it came back with nothing right it was a witch (with a "B") and other nasty things. . .I'll let you guess what pilots that continually gripped everything were called. If it sat in a corner as a parts bin it was the Hangar Queen.
I could go on. . .

Don

This contribution is not a Jet figther or bomber.

How about the UH-1s which was officially named by the USAF as Iroquis but more known as the "HUEYs" form the U-H letters. Also has been called as "the workhorse", "the buzz" and "the hog" for the armed version used in vietnam.

QUOTE: Originally posted by upnorth Canadian Sea King helicopters have, due to years of growing maintenance problems become known by some as "Sea Pigs"

yeah right, every time you hear about sea kings, its called a "tragedy"

With ref to the C130. The RAAF H series and earlier are refered to as Stubbies by the crews of the streached version of the J series.
The Bristol Beaufighter was refered to as the Whispering Death by the Japanese.
When they arrived on the scene the B727 and the DC9 were refered to as Thumpers by ATC because they realy thumped accross the radar screens compared to the Viscounts (Kerosene Kate) and L188s. The B747 was also known as Fat Albert. To go back to WW2 the Wellington was known as Wimpie after Wellington J Wimpey of cartoon fame.
Thats all I can think of at the moment. TTFN Dai

when i was in the ATC i went on anual camp to Binbrook where i heard the BAC Lightning refered to as "the frightning" and at Kinloss in Scotland where the crews called the Nimrod the "Vommit comet" because it even made the crews airsick! I have read that the Corsair was nicknamed "The bent winged b*****d from coneticut" also the mosquitto was called the"wooden wonder" and the "termites dream" i have been told the shackleton was reffered to as "50 million rivets flying in close formation" also why did the dakota get called the "gooneybird"?....Greg

A few more I've heard are these:

"Sewer pipe with wings" (this term was applied to the F-104 by a guy I was talking to once who had flown them with the Canadian Armed Forces. I asked him how that name came to be and he just laughed and walked away)

I've heard that the F-105 was also nicknamed the "Iron Butterfly" by some who worked with it.

I've heard some service people refer to the Chinook as the "s#$t hook"

jet equiped B-36s were "four burnin' and six turnin'"

I've always liked the Beech 18's nickname "bug smasher" but I've no idea where it comes from.

I recently had a conversation with a guy who served in the Royal Navy, he refered to Buccaneers as "bricks" and Sea Vixens as "spewers"

Said most deck crew hated the Sea Vixen because she was a terribly leaky bird, they ad guys standing by with buckets when a Sea Vixen was coming into land and as soon as it was parked they'd hang the buckets under a particular spot under each tail boom where the aircraft leaked hydraulic fluid at a rate that it nearly was spewing.

The story I heard regarding the B-1 referred to as Bone started when an ignorant journalist type wrote it up as B-one in a story he was writing. The pilots got wind of this and the name stuck. I think its an appropriate name considering what happens to those on the receiving end of its cargo.

I always thought that "Thunderstorm" would have been a great name for the A-10. It would keep the "Thunder ...." theme going, and it would nod to the Sturmovik tank buster of WWII.

But the, I suppose naming it after the meteorological condition might cause air traffic control some consternation: "Thunderstorms over Tucson" might cause some kind of weather alert!

Paul Boyer
Senior Editor

here some
A-10: Hawg, Black Death, Big Gun, Hog, Black Gun, Spad, Sandy,T-Bolt, Ugly Stick,
F-16: Yard Dart, Viper(original name then changed to Falcon), Electric Jet, G-Maker, Mustang II(name was used prior to Viper but GD thaught it would confuse people with the Ford's flop of a Pony Car),Fair Weather Fighter
C-130: Trash Hauler,
F-111: Vark, Wispering Death, Ground Hugger
F-15: Fleagle(named from the cartoon from TAC Attack)
A-1: Spad, Sandy, Flying Dump Truck, Able One, Able Dog,
P-38: Two Plane With One Pilot(Japanees), Forked Tail Devil,
F-117: Shaba(ghost), Have Blue, Izzy-Is He a Fighter
F-105: Thud, Weasle, Lead Sled,
I know some of these names where already said but there are bunches used but some of which I heard from the Pilot who flew them

In early 70's, as I remember, after many accidents with German F-104 Starfighter, they call it "Flying Coffin" in Eastern Block's papers (I'm not sure how exact was the nickname, but I remember it well). And MIG-21, at least for a short time, was called "Szybki" ("Fast") in Poland. An-2 is "Antek" ("Tony"). Aleksander

EC-135: PACCS
B-58: Hustler, and when on the ground it was known as the flying mosquito.
F-111: Triple threat (Bomb you, strafe you, and fall on you) this was because they were having trouble with the hinge assembly on the original.
F-105: Thud, Lead sled
B-52: Buff- big ugly fat fella
HH-3 Plastic Pig
UH-1 Huey
F-104: Man guided engine
F6F: Sea Fury

OK, how 'bout all those NATO code names for Soviet/Russian aircraft? Included are a few American a/c in Soviet service. The PBY Catalina was known as "Mop". More info please click below:

http://www.bubbamoose.com/nato_codes.html

Hey all,
I haven't seen anyone list the A-10s as Warthogs. Thats how they were referred to at Eddies airplane patch when I worked there.And I have never EVER heard,seen or listnened to the Blackbird as sled or anykind of sled!
Good Hunting,
rdxpress

Also, how could I forget?
Swordfish - Stringbag
Walrus - Shagbat
Javelin - Flying flatiron

And from memory, the name Spitfire was first applied to a Supermarine monoplane design from the early thirties that had an open cockpit and an inverted gull wing like a JU 87, It was supposed to be a fighter!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Aluminium Overcast, wasn't it the B 36?

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

I think I rember reading that quite contrary to the movie with Leslie Howard, Reginald Mitchell was not the one who came up with the name "Spitfire", and didn't even like it.

Thinking of names of British aircraft, whoever came up with naming that big ugly bipane "Vildebeest" must have had a very dark sense of humor. Why else would any one name a supposed combat aircraft after an animal whose sole purpose apparenty is to serve as fodder for predators ?

Jim

RAF nicknames include;
C130- Fat Albert (from around the Falklands war era)
F-4 Phantom - The Tomb
Meteor - Meatbox
Helicopters are, or were, generally refered to as 'cabs'
Tornado - Tonka (or electric jet) or 'that heap of s**t out there!'
Shackleton- ten million rivets, flying in formation or just Shack (as in shed)
Tristar- Guzomee bird (Goes home,me) (again, a Falklands tag)
Harrier- Leaping Heap or steam powered budgie (from the water injection)
Chinook- Wokka Wokka
Wessex- Walter Wessex

Some unkind RAF aircrew call the Tornado F3 the 'Spazjet', due to it's less than sparkling dogfighting abilities. I find this a little unfair, because with a BVR Interceptor, if you've let the other guy live long enough to get to dogfighting range, then you deserve all you get!

But then I'm biased!

The Sea Harrier is known throughout the UK as the 'SHAR'.

I guess that's similar to the B1 - Bone analogy.

I like Typhoon for the Eurofighter. It p*ssed theGermans off Royally, but then they had the Me-108 Taiphen!

Cheers,

Rob M.

As a former USMC CH-53D mechanic, we would call the CH-46E a Sea Magnet, instead of Sea Knight. Another nickname was the "Frog", due to its nose-high attitude while on the ground. Not to be outdone, the Frog mechs would refer to our Sea Stallions as Sea Horses.

I was at the Andrews AFB Airshow on Sunday and had the opportunity to speak with the pilot of a C-17. We talked a bit about the plane, and I asked if the C-17 had a nickname yet.

It turns out that pilots call the plane Barney, Fred's (C-5) little buddy!

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.

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.

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.

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

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"