Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Halo on July 17, 2008, 10:22:23 AM
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What do you think about the practice of naming planes with II or such instead of coming up with something new? Don't great new designs deserve their own original nicknames instead of being tied to predecessors no matter how illustrious?
For example: Thunderbolt II, Corsair II, Lightning II, Globemaster III, and the many different Mirages (some of which were logical based on same design evolution, e.g., III and IV). Somebody is even thinking about naming the new USAF tanker (IF it ever gets finally chosen and produced) Expeditor II, which is ridiculous since the Beech Expeditor was a small utility transport by a different company.
Corsair is particularly odd since that commemorates pirates who were among the Navy's earliest foes and still are.
Multisyllable tongue twisters sometimes get dramatically shortened by aircrews, e.g., Thunderchief to Thud, Stratofortress to BUFF, Thunderbolt II to Hog. The Fighting Falcon got that way to avoid infringement on the Dassault Falcon.
Just as in personas used in Aces High and in radio chat, nothing like a punchy one- or two-syllable nickname. Do you have any great aircraft names that haven't been used yet to suggest to designers and operators? For example, is there a Viper out there? I thought some people called the F-16 the Viper but haven't seen any examples recently.
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razor, interceptor, flash, thrash, buzz saw, annihilator, hammer, chainsaw, blast, vapor, sharkfin, destructor, and last but not least.......the diving betty.
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How about some names that are more fearful in modern lexicon...
Auditor
Denial_Of_Service
Lag.. oh.. wait..that's taken..
Vista
OPEC
Attourney
Litigator
Filibuster
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How about some names that are more fearful in modern lexicon...
Auditor
Denial_Of_Service
Lag.. oh.. wait..that's taken..
Vista
OPEC
Attourney
Litigator
Filibuster
you forget the "IRS" and the "Colonoscopy".
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The Fighting Falcon got that way to avoid infringement on the Dassault Falcon.
IIIRC, it was done to avoid confusion with the AIM-4. Always thought that "Fighting Falcon" was a silly name, which probably led AF personnel to come up with the unofficial (but much cooler) Viper. I always felt it would be cool to have the AF's premier fighters called Eagle & Falcon. Sort of a big brother/little brother kind of thing. But "Fighting Falcon" is just lame, right up here with Corsair II & Thunderbolt II. Since there's a very good chance the F-22 will be the last manned fighter for the AF, "Raptor" is a great name. After that, we'll just call them all ED209. ;)
BUT, if we're coming up with silly names.. how about the Bobbittizer?
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(quote) I always felt it would be cool to have the AF's premier fighters called Eagle & Falcon. (unquote)
So did the Air Force. But Dassault already called one of its business jets Falcon, as I recall. Air Force couldn't use Falcon without qualifying with something else like Fighting. In actual usage, of course, particularly when time is short, people naturally just call the F-16 "Falcon."
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I always referred to the F16 as "lawn dart".
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How about some names that are more fearful in modern lexicon...
Auditor
Denial_Of_Service
Lag.. oh.. wait..that's taken..
Vista
OPEC
Attourney
Litigator
Filibuster
lmfao
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The II designation is often a tribute to a proven warhorse. USAF members have a tendency to ignore the official name and apply thier own nickname.
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I vaguely remember an old prohibition against using Eagle because it's the national symbol. But somehow the F-15 snagged it. Will never beat Eagle and Falcon as the most appropriate one-two USAF fighter nicknames.