Aircrafts/Vechicles nicknames and designations

[titanic3]

   Who give aircrafts and vehicles their names? I know that nicknames are given by either the people who uses/fly them, then again, I could be wrong. Who gives the plane designation? Take the Bf-109 for example. It's true name is Bf-109, but most call it Me-109. So where does the "Bf" part come from? Obviously, "Me" is for Messerschmitt. And where does the number come from? Is it in order? A special date/year? Or did some one just randomly pick a number... . Enlighten me.. 

[Cthulhu]

Bayerische Flugzeugwerke. (Bavarian Aircraft Company)

[MiloMorai]

The RLM assigned numbers in numerical sequence. The manufacturer's abbreviation, ie. Me, Bf, Fw, Do etc, would put in front of the number.

[Motherland]

"Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW) (Bavarian Aircraft Works) was reformed in 1926 in Augsburg, Bavaria when Udet-Flugzeugbau GmbH was changed into a joint-stock company. In the early stages, BMW AG held a stake in this company and was represented by Josef Popp, who held a place on the Supervisory Board.

Willy Messerschmitt joined the company in 1927 as chief designer and engineer, and formed a design team.

One of the first designs, the Messerschmitt M20, was a near-catastrophe for the designer and the company. Many of the prototypes crashed, one of them killing Hans Hackman, a close friend of Erhard Milch, the head of Lufthansa and the German civil aviation authorities. Milch was upset by the lack of response from Messerschmitt and this led to a lifelong hatred towards him. Milch eventually cancelled all contracts with Messerschmitt and forced BFW into bankruptcy in 1931. However, the German re-armament programs and Messerschmitt's friendship with Hugo Junkers prevented a stagnation of the careers of him and BFW, which was started again in 1933. Milch still prevented Messerschmitt's takeover of the BFW until 1938, hence the designation "Bf" of early Messerschmitt designs.

Messerschmitt promoted a concept he called "light weight construction" in which many typically separate load-bearing parts were merged into a single reinforced firewall, thereby saving weight and improving performance. The first true test of the concept was in the Bf 108 Taifun sports-plane, which would soon be setting all sorts of records. Based on this performance the company was invited to submit a design for the Luftwaffe's 1935 fighter contest, winning it with the Bf 109, based on the same construction methods.

From this point on Messerschmitt became a favorite of the Nazi party, as much for his designs as his political abilities and the factory location in southern Germany away from the "clumping" of aviation firms on the northern coast. BFW was reconstituted as Messerschmitt AG on July 11, 1938, with Willy Messerschmitt as chairman and managing director. The renaming of BFW resulted in the company's RLM designation changing from Bf to Me for all newer designs after the acquisition date. Existing types, such as the Bf 109 and 110, retained their earlier designation in official documents, although sometimes the newer designations were used as well, most often by subcontractors. In practise, all BFW/Messerschmitt aircraft from 108 to 163 (not the same plane as the Me 163) were prefixed Bf, all later types with Me."

The Bf.109 and 110 were designed before Bayerische Flugzeugwerke was reconstitued as Messerschmitt AG so they retained the 'Bf.' designation.

[Serenity]

The term "Flying Fortress" was coined by a newspaper writer in Seattle upon seeing the YB-17's defensive guns for the first time. IIRC, the exact statement went something like "That thing is a flying fortress!"

[Soulyss]

The model and type are usually designated by the manufacturer or the contract holder in the cases we are talking about it's the government and varries from country to country.  Names and nicknames spring up from all over the place.  Many of the U.S. warplanes were named by the british, some stuck like "Mustang" and "Lightning".  Sometimes they were code names, the allies had code names for all the Japanese warplanes, male names for fighters and female names for bombers.  Even then airmen didn't always adopt them.  Case in point the offical code name for the A6M Type-0 "Zero" fighter was Zeke, yet in most combat reports I've read they were referred to as "Zero". 

AH isn't a bad example of aircraft taking on interesting nicknames, here the N1K2 "George" fighter is "nikki" to most people, LA-7's are "lala's" etc.

[Jester]

Many of the names of US planes were given to them by the British when they received them on Lend-Lease. Later the US Military adopted the names.

MUSTANG, LIGHTNING, THUNDERBOLT, LIBERATOR, CATALINA, HARVARD, TOMAHAWK, KITTYHAWK, WARHAWK, BUFFALO were a few that come to mind.

 

[SgtPappy]

In terms of designation, however, that's a crazy different story. The Axis and the Russians usually named planes by the manufacturer's name. Lavochkin = La, Ki = Kawasaki, Fw = Focke-Wulf (though it's interesting to point out that the the 'Ta' in Ta152 is named so after Kurt Tank; a designer with Focke-Wulf, just as Bayerische  Flugzeugwerke was Bf and was named after Willy Messerscmitt, creating the Me designation) etc. The US Navy used designation with company names to an extent as well.

F4U-1A for example.
F = Fighter, 4 = the fourth of that type (in this case, fighter) produced by that company, U = code letter for Vought Aircraft. 1 = 1st variant, A = first subvariant.

or SB2C
SB = Scout Bomber, 2 = second of that type by that company, C = Curtiss

The USAAF designated differently (naturally):
P-38J-15-LO
P = Pursuit, 38 = a number given to that plane, J = variant (there were no I's used in variant designation since it looked like a 1), 15 = 15th subvariant, LO = Lockheed.

You'll find a lot of stuff like Type 300 (Spitfire prototype), NA-73X (P-51 prototype) or Model 22 (P-38 prototype). They're all company designations for their own planes before being handed out to the military.

[Serenity]

You'll find a lot of stuff like Type 300 (Spitfire prototype), NA-73X (P-51 prototype) or Model 22 (P-38 prototype). They're all company designations for their own planes before being handed out to the military.

Model 299... 

[SgtPappy]

Hm? According to 'The Great Book of World War II Airplanes" with published articles from numerous authors (the P-38 article by Jeffrey Ethell), "Lockheed's Model 22, later the XP-38, ... was entered into the compatition." (Ethell, 3). "The order for 13 service-test YP-38's (Lockheed Model 122)..." (Ethell, 5).
Later it shows that the Model 322F and 322B were built for France and Britain respectively, having the 3's allocated to them for export.

Perhaps you mean Boeing's model 299, the B-17?

[Serenity]

Perhaps you mean Boeing's model 299, the B-17?

Exactly what I meant. I was just slipping in my personal favorite model deisgnation.

[AirFlyer]

Many of the Japanese planes were named under a short designation. The A6M makes a good example of this.

In the A6M's case the A stands for Carrier Fighter.
A    Carrier fighter
B    Carrier attack bomber
C    Reconnaissance
D    Carrier dive bomber
E    Reconnaissance seaplane
F    Observation seaplane
G    Attack bomber (land-based)
H    Flying boat
J    Fighter (land-based)
K    Trainer
L    Transport
M    Special seaplane
N    Fighter seaplane
P    Bomber
Q    Patrol
R    Reconnaissance (land-based)
S    Night fighter

The 6 in A6M stands for it was the 6th Carrier Fighter named under this designation system.

And the M stands that it was manufactured by Mitsubishi(even though Nakajimi made more A6Ms by the end of the war so I don't quite get that).
A    Aichi
        North American Aviation
B    Boeing
C    Consolidated Aircraft
D    Showa
        Douglas Aircraft
G    Hitachi Kokuki
        Grumman
H    Hiro
        Hawker
He    Heinkel
J    Nihon Kogata Hikoki
        Junkers
K    Kawanishi
        Kinner
M    Mitsubishi
N    Nakajima
P    Nihon
S    Sasebo
Si    Showa
V    Vought-Sikorsky
W    Watanabe
W    Kyushu
Y    Yokusuka
Z    Mizuno Guraida Seisakusho

[Denniss]

The M stands for Mitsubishi as they were the original developer of the aircraft. Who manufactured the aircraft as subcontractor was irrelevant to many aircraft designation systems.

[CAP1]

   Who give aircrafts and vehicles their names? I know that nicknames are given by either the people who uses/fly them, then again, I could be wrong. Who gives the plane designation? Take the Bf-109 for example. It's true name is Bf-109, but most call it Me-109. So where does the "Bf" part come from? Obviously, "Me" is for Messerschmitt. And where does the number come from? Is it in order? A special date/year? Or did some one just randomly pick a number... . Enlighten me.. 

the only one i think i know, is the mustang.

 it was originally named the apache. the british renamed it the mustang after re-fitting it with the rolls royce merlin. i don't know why they chose mustang though.

[SgtPappy]

No, the A-36 Apache was an adaptation of the P-51A Mustang, except with dive-breaks, and other ground attack weapons and equipment. The Mustang was a name given to the P-51A (Allison-fitted) design as soon as it entered service with the British. The name then stuck.