Worst Possible Name For A Combat Aircraft.
- Thread starter oldironside
- Start date
That's not really a Messerschmitt 261, though. I like to think of Blohm und Voss by its actual name, Hamburger.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Hawker Tomtit. Although it's only a trainer, the name makes me titter. I'm also fond of the Gnatsnapper. It reminds me of Tom Slick, and the Thunderbolt GreaseSlapper.
The B-29 was given the name, Washington, by the British, who needed it.
A strange name for a strategic nuclear bomber, the Peacemaker. Some turn, some burn, some turn and burn.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the Hawker Tomtit. Although it's only a trainer, the name makes me titter. I'm also fond of the Gnatsnapper. It reminds me of Tom Slick, and the Thunderbolt GreaseSlapper.
The B-29 was given the name, Washington, by the British, who needed it.
A strange name for a strategic nuclear bomber, the Peacemaker. Some turn, some burn, some turn and burn.
Unless one presumes that "peace" means a peace made possible by the actual or threatened destruction of the other guy.
Bad example to support a basically true statement. "Flying Fortress" was a registered trademark of the Boeing company, assigned neither by the USAAF nor RAF.
On the general topic of British names, I rather like the use of alliteration, use of bird names for fighters, and city names for bombers in the mid-war period.
Also, I've read that Mitchell actually preferred the name "shrew" for what became the Spitfire. Thank God that didn't happen!
Back when the MX missle was being planned to replace the Miniteman as the primary ICBM the Air Force decided it needed a name. So they decided on
VIGILANT
There was a big cerimony planned (I believe as part of the annual missile crew competition that SAC held back then. As a preliminary to the big press briefing that was planned there was a briefing with all the launch crews. They filed into the Auditorium and on each seat was a 'Press Packet' with pre edited articles, decals and other swag.
The CiC of SAC was on the stage along with officials from Boeing and with a lot of hoopla the curtain was opened to reveal the new logo for the VIGILANT. Everybody sat there with a low murmer until a voice came from somewhere in the back half of the room "Great Now we can call ourselves the Vigilantes" A stunde silence quickly spread. Everyone on the stage looked at each other staff members were seen to confer with the head brass. A Staff officer went to the mike and told the assembled folks that the briefing was over an d they were not to discuss the name with anyone. They were to hand the info packet on their seat to staff members at the door as they left.
Well someone I later met was there and the chair next to him was unoccupied. He had already taken the 'extra' packet and put it inside his jumpsuit. So on the way out he handed in his packet.
Supposedly all the information was destroyed although a few (like my friends) must have slipped through. I saw his several years after the fact when we were assigned together. I've lost track of him and don't know what happened to the packet. It would probably be worth a fair amount as a collectors item. He said he would never sell it.
The MX received two other names. First it was Peacemaker which was changed to Peacekeeper before it was deployed.
I remember a newspaper cartoon of the time showing an MX in its silo with a cow grazing nearby. The missile was labelled "Peacekeeper". The cow was labelled "sheep".
It was nearly named the Shrew, but not by R J Mithell. Watch the first 10 minutes of this. As an added bonus you get appearances by Stanford Tuck, Douglas Bader and Adolf Galland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDzZnCkbxgs
Not the only plane they built to that shape...
It could carry a 21" torpedo in 1921, mind you!
Wow! I'd never heard of this one. A single engine torpedo bomber in 1924 that could carry a 21 inch torpedo and had a range of 1800 miles. That's absolutely stunning, and it's also named after a chicken, so it fits this thread. Good Lord it was big. An 88 foot wingspan and a crew of four.
Here's a POD for you. If the Air Ministry had carried on along that path of a single engined land based torpedo bomber, what sort of plane could the navy have had in 1939?
Ze German Luftwaffe had at end of WW2 very Bizarre Aircraft Design in Development.
Blohm und Voss P.194
Blohm und Voss BV P.111
sadly we German not gave names to aircraft only designation like BV P.111
but we gave them nicknames
Messerschmitt Bf 261 got nickname "Adolfine" because Hitler eminent interest on that model...
Those planes would have been very good at going around in circles.
Driftless
Donor
An underwhelming aircraft with a great name: the Brewster Buccaneer/Bermuda. Blowfish might have been a better fit.
Yes they did. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US Government published aerial photographs showing Faggots at Cuban air bases. The British satirical magazine Private Eye had a field day.
OTL you had the Blackburn Shark, Fairey Battle, Fairey Swordfish and Vickers Wellesley as the only light bombers capable of lifting the 1,548 pounds that was the weight of the aerial torpedo the British started the war with.
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That wasn't really my point. If you look at the link you'll find a contemporary article from Flight about this thing.
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200537.html
Look at the third picture. That gives an idea of what an asbolute beast this thing was. If they could build something like this in 1924, what could they have developed by 1939? The Rodney was fitted with 24.5 inch torpedo tubes. It should have been easy to build a single engine bomber to carry that.
(the torpedo, I mean. Not the Rodney)
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Saphroneth
Banned
I'm picturing something with a wingspan so huge that it has to be fitted on an aircraft carrier lengthways, with the ability to strike Pearl Harbor from Dover. 
The Fairey Magellan.
The Fairey Magellan.
I'm picturing something with a wingspan so huge that it has to be fitted on an aircraft carrier lengthways, with the ability to strike Pearl Harbor from Dover.
The Fairey Magellan.
Something like this?