Re: Numbers for Bombers & Fighters (v. OT, but Somebody Here Probably Knows)

On Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:59:07 -0700, Proponent <Proponent@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

This is real trivia, but here goes anyway.

Up until about 1960, US bomber planes all seemed to be named B-n,
where n took an integral value greater than for the previous plane. n
got to be as large as 70. Then suddenly n dropped to 1 and we got the
B-1 and then the B-2. Had it been left to computer hackers, we
probably would have had the B-0.

Something similar happened with fighters at about the same time: n
peaked at 108 and then suffered a calamitous decline.

What happened? Were smaller numbers suddenly in fashion? Were smaller
numbers easier to get past congress? Was it supposed to trick
potential enemies into believing the would only WWI-era aircraft? :)

In September 1962, the Defense Department unified the aircraft
designation systems of the Air Force (B-52, F-106, etc.) and the Navy
(A3J, F8U, etc.) Navy aircraft switched to the Air Force's numbering
scheme (Mission - Number / Subtype) instead of their old confusing
system in which the last letter indicated the manufacturer (J = North
American, U = Vought, etc.) which meant different fighter planes for
example had "F4" in their designation (F4D Skyray, F4H Phantom II).
Most Navy aircraft got new numbers, starting with 1 while Air Force
aircraft kept their higher numbers (the big exception is that the Air
Force's Phantom II variant switched from F-110 to F-4.) To minimize
the "loss of identity", some Navy numbers remained the same (F8U
became the F-8 Crusader, F4H became the F-4 Phantom II) but most
changed completely (A3J became the A-5 Vigilante, F4D became the F-6
Skyray.) The Air Force numbers were reset at this time, so the F-111,
C-142, and XB-70 were the highest numbers in their series before
starting over on the new unified scheme. (The later F-117 has its own
convoluted history.) The next Air Force bomber became the B-1.

The numbering system has since been wrecked, confused, and completely
ignored when necessary to suit political whims, with oddities such as
F-35 (skipping F-24 to F-34) and the idiotic KC-767 (tanker version of
the Boeing 767, which should be KC-46). And there are numerous numbers
that were evidently never assigned (no -13's at all, no C-16 or F-19.)

Brian
.

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