Hi guys,
Drawing upon the collected wit of the body.
I see some USAF planes tagged with F (F-15, F-
16, etc), some with F/A, some with VF, etc.
What do these mean? I'm guessing F is for fighter, B is for bomber, V is a
qualifier meaning Vertol or Vectored thrust... but what
are some of the others like the /A?
And what's the Osprey? A VT-22 ? (T for
Transport?)
Is X experimental?
And what kind of tags get stuck on CAS planes like the Warthog (A for attack)?
Didn't the Sandy's (from Nam era) have a different sort of designator?
I further assume H (as in Huey UH1H) is
helicopter, U perhaps univeral? And the A in AH-
64 is attack helicopter?
Am I even playing in the right ballpark?:)
(I ask because I'm thinking about CAS and
tactical transport planes like A-10s and
tiltrotors like the Osprey or the QTR in the context of SG2 and DS2).
T.
Here are the USAF classifications; it's on the web, but I don't remember where
offhand.
A attack
B bomber
C cargo
D Drone
E Electronic
F fighter
G (ground)
H SAR
I (not used)
J Test: temporary
K Tanker
L Polar
M Multi-mission
N test: permanent
O Observation
P Patrol
Q Target
R Recon
S ASW
T Trainer
U Utility
V VIP
W Weather
X Experimental
Y Prototype
Z Lighter-than-air
For details on specific current aircraft, see
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/index.html
on 02.6.28 1:23 PM, Thomas Barclay at kaladorn@magma.ca scribbleth:
> What do these mean? I'm guessing F is for
> Thomas Barclay wrote:
> What do these mean? I'm guessing F is for
The F/A stands for Fighter/Attack, which means that it's dual-tasked for
both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat (i.e. the F/A-18, whereas the
A-10 Warthog is primarily (exclusively) a ground attack aircraft,
although from what I understand, there are some Iraqi helicopter pilots who
might debate that if they were able to!).
> And what's the Osprey? A VT-22 ? (T for
Mmm, not sure about that one, but it sounds right. I wouldn't worry about it
too much, as the Osprey probably won't make it out of the hangar much longer
anyway. I do know that for the Air Force, the T alone typically designates a
training aircraft. As for the VF, I've
only seen that in reference to naval squadron designations (i.e. VF-12,
etc.)
> Is X experimental?
Yup.
> And what kind of tags get stuck on CAS planes
See the explanation above, the A has been used for attack craft since
the advent of the A-1 Skyraider (which was widely used in Vietnam IIRC).
> I further assume H (as in Huey UH1H) is
Sounds right to me.
I think (don't quote me...) that the U in helo codes (UH-1 Huey, etc) is
actually Utility, not Universal.
The in-service Osprey might actually be the UV-22, or VU-22; assuming
they ever find sensible pilots to run the creature. (and honest
AMEs/commanders
to keep the aircraft logs, of course.)(at least one of the Osprey crashes
may have been because the unit commander/maintance types were fudging
the
logs to get the a/c thru it's tests faster, ie pushing it past it's
airtime maintanence limits...)
(Haven't I seen US military drone a/c with the UV-xx designator, though?
Someone?)
> Hi guys,
See http://www.driko.org/usdes2.html#1962
Other parts of the page explain pre-1962 designations.
See also http://www.hazegray.org/faq/designat.htm
for the Army-Navy (AN/) series of designations for electronic equipment
- which
explains names of equipment like BSY-2, SPS-40, UYK-44, PRC-32 etc.
The very best source for aircraft designation data is the
rec.military.aviation FAQ, in particular
http://www.canit.se/~griffon/aviation/faq/ramfaq4.txt
The AN/ designations for electronic equipment have been modified a bit
over
time, with certain obsolete meanings ( such as _B_ )dropped. The best
URL for the old ones is
"http://www.armyradio.com/publish/Articles/power_up/The_Joint_Electronic
s_Type_Designation_System.htm"
So BBC-4 is a submarine pigeon communications device. Which seems
strangely appropriate...
Alan pretty well covered this subject, but it's worth mentioning that
what each letter means in a designation depends on its position -- in
the case of a/c, in relation to the dash and type number. What a letter
means in one slot is not the same as its meaning elsewhere.
"H" is a good example: in a type designation, it means helicopter; as a
qualifier (which precedes the "central" type designation), it means
an SAR a/c. Hence the HH-61 Holly Green Giant, a (heavily modified) SAR
version of the Sea King, but also the HC-130H Hercules variant.
In the case of the Osprey, the a/c is the V-22, with particular
sub-types including the MV-22 (SpecOps), the CV-22 (cargo/troop
hauler), the SV-22 (projected anti-sub version), etc.
And then there are the "sports", generally caused by some iggorant
politician, e.g., the SR-71 which was given that designation after LBJ
(I think) messed up the correct version in a national broadcast and
no-one was game to contradict him... And it has to be said that the
Pentagon is not as rigorous about this as it perhaps might be.
Phil
----
Phillip Atcliffe schrieb:
> And then there are the "sports", generally caused by some
Another one is the F-117 Stealth 'Fighter', which has no air-to-air
capability at all and by right should have an 'attack' or 'bomber'
designation. Not sure whether this was chosen for security reasons or
because a 'fighter' is sexier than a mud-mover.
Greetings
From: "Phillip Atcliffe" <Phillip.Atcliffe@uwe.ac.uk>
> And then there are the "sports", generally caused by some iggorant
...and since adopted as scheme-breaking exceptions.
SR-71 - was supposed to be RS-71 till LBJ JBL'd it
U-2 - So black they called it a "utility" aircraft.
TR-1, TR-2 and rumoured TR-3 - SR became by common usage "Strategic
Recon", so they used TR for "Tactical Recon" as far as I can remember.
Minor miffs:
F/A-18 should be AF-18
FB-111 should be BF-111
On Fri, 28 Jun 2002 19:10:46 +1000 Alan and Carmel Brain
> <aebrain@webone.com.au> wrote:
> From: "Phillip Atcliffe" <Phillip.Atcliffe@uwe.ac.uk>
> SR-71 - was supposed to be RS-71 till LBJ JBL'd it <
Even weirder, the XB-70 was supposedly retermed the RS-70, hence the
-71 number.
Actually, the whole saga of the Blackbird designations is a mess. I've
seen articles claiming all sorts of weird things, like the A-11 company
designation actually being "AI-1", the first in a new series of
Interceptor types as distinct from Fighters... And then there's the question
of why, since the USAF is so determined to call any combat aircraft that it
has a fighter or bomber, why the operational
Blackbirds weren't RF-12's, after the YF-12A designation was given to
the fighter version.
> TR-1, TR-2 and rumoured TR-3 - SR became by common usage "Strategic
That's right.
> Minor miffs:
[Snip]
> F-117 should probably be something like A-12. But since the F-105 and
That's the USAF for you. They are all fixated on the fighter jock
mentality there. The A-10 is the ONLY aircraft specifically designed
for the USAF that has an A designation. All the others were originally USN
designs that the AF adopted later.
In the case of the F-111, there's the excuse that the B model was
intended to be the Fleet Air Defence aircraft for carrier groups, so it
had a fighter-like role.
> The F-35 should be AF-35 or even A-something.
The "F-35" should be the F-24 (or -25)! Or are the Pentagon going to
completely jump 11 numbers in the type list for no good reason? Why the
heck were the JSF demonstrators given X-numbers anyway? What was wrong
with XF-24 and XF-25?
I suspect marketing stupidity here, just as F-19 was skipped because
Northrop wanted the Tigershark to be "different" from the "old"
teen-series fighters. And don't get me started on the stupidity that is
the F-117...!
Phil
----
A couple of quick notes.
An aviation history enthusiast in the Air Force ( I *hope* we have some
in the AF) probably noted that BF-111 is awfully close to to the German
Bf- series from WW2 (the Me-109 started life as the Bf-109 until Willy
Messerschmidt made an ego move).. Maybe.
The 11 missing numeric designations are in use by X-series aircraft.
We're going to bump into WW2 designations this century (P-47, P-51) so
it's a good thing the Pursuit designation is out of fashion.
> Phillip Atcliffe wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Jun 2002 19:10:46 +1000 Alan and Carmel Brain
> designation actually being "AI-1", the first in a new series of
<
> That's right.
> had a fighter-like role.
> heck were the JSF demonstrators given X-numbers anyway? What was wrong
> the F-117...!
On Fri, 28 Jun 2002 06:44:06 -0700 Michael Llaneza
> <maserati@earthlink.net> wrote:
> A couple of quick notes.
> An aviation history enthusiast in the Air Force ( I *hope* we have
Actually, the company changed its name. Originally, it was the
Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (and I know the spelling's appalling) -- hence
Bf -- then became Messerschmitt whatever, and the designations changed
to Me, which is what the Allies had been using anyway <g>.
If you want a real "ego move", how about the Focke-Wulf Ta 152 and Ta
154, named for Kurt Tank? <g>
> The 11 missing numeric designations are in use by X-series aircraft.
We're going to bump into WW2 designations this century (P-47, P-51) so
it's a good thing the Pursuit designation is out of fashion. <
Unless they've changed the system and not told anyone, that doesn't make
sense. Unlike the WW2 German system, there is no unique number
issued to an aircraft type; it's perfectly possible to have an F-1,
B-1, C-1, X-1, H-1, E-1, etc, and all those types exist. Each letter is
in a separate series, so the fact that *X*-24 to -31 and -33 and -34
are taken in no way requires *F* aircraft with the same numbers to be skipped,
and it's not good that the Pentagon appears to be allowing
this for no better reason than some brain-dead marketer who can't cope
(or who thinks no-one else can cope) with the X-35 being a prototype
for the F-24. Truth be told, the X-35 should have been the XF- or YF-24
or -25 anyway.
Phil
----
Phillip Atcliffe schrieb:
> Actually, the company changed its name. Originally, it
You will be surprised: It's correct!
:-)
> -----Original Message-----
You're quite close...The official US Aircraft Systems designations for
variants is;
A Attack B Bomber C Cargo D Drone E Electronic F Figher G [not used] H Search
and Rescue (SAR) I [not used]
J Test - Temporary
K Tanker L Polar
M Multi-Mission
N Test - Permanent
O Observation P Patrol Q Target R Reconnaissance
S Anti-Submarine
T Trainer U Utility V VIP W Weather X Experimental Y Prototype
Z Lighter-Than-Air
...from http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/list/index.html
but obviously this is not always followed, as H is usually used as the second
letter for helicopter, not SAR as noted.
So, F-15 = Fighter number 15, F/A-18 =Attack Fighter number 18,
Osprey is V-22 (MV for Marine and CV for Air Force), UH-1H is
Utility Helicopter number 1 model H, AH-64 = Attack Helicopter
number 64.
HTH
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Alfie Finch" <alfie.finch@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Subject: RE: [OT] USAF plane nomenclature
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 21:14:16 +0100
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> -----Original Message-----
You're quite close...The official US Aircraft Systems designations for
variants is;
A Attack B Bomber C Cargo D Drone E Electronic F Figher G [not used] H Search
and Rescue (SAR) I [not used]
J Test - Temporary
K Tanker L Polar
M Multi-Mission
N Test - Permanent
O Observation P Patrol Q Target R Reconnaissance
S Anti-Submarine
T Trainer U Utility V VIP W Weather X Experimental Y Prototype
Z Lighter-Than-Air
...from http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/list/index.html
but obviously this is not always followed, as H is usually used as the second
letter for helicopter, not SAR as noted.
So, F-15 = Fighter number 15, F/A-18 =Attack Fighter number 18,
Osprey is V-22 (MV for Marine and CV for Air Force), UH-1H is
Utility Helicopter number 1 model H, AH-64 = Attack Helicopter
number 64.
HTH
Alfie
Almost totally correct.. M is also for mine-sweepers as well. (MH-53)
> So, F-15 = Fighter number 15, F/A-18 =Attack Fighter number 18,
The slash (/) in a designation means multi-role, concatenated letters
mean
concentration... F/A-18 is a fighter AND attack aircraft. Whereas the
AH-64 would be Attack Helicopter (attack only).
Note, also, that typically A is a formality, and often only used on pure
attack aircraft now. A-10, AH-64, A-6, A-7... Whereas the F
designation
does not preclude attack capabilities (The F-14 with Laser pod was used
in
Afghanistan and Iraq for bombing runs, and the F-15 Strike Eagle is the
name for the ground attack varient)