Well. It’s not the worst name I could think of (full story behind a tedious Dallas Morning News subscription process):
The Air Force chief of staff will name the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter by June 30, choosing from six monikers that range from the historic to the arcane, military and industry officials say.
Officials at Lockheed Martin Corp., which largely builds the new multiservice stealth aircraft in Fort Worth, hope President Bush will announce the winning name in a visit to the factory proposed for July 7.
The six finalists being considered by Gen. T. Michael “Buzz” Moseley, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, include two based on famed World War II fighters: Lightning II ‚Äì the odds-on favorite ‚Äì and Spitfire II.
The P-38 Lightning was built by Lockheed and flown by Richard Bong, the leading American ace of World War II with 40 kills of enemy aircraft.
The Spitfire was the British fighter credited with winning the 1940 Battle of Britain by taking on German fighters and bombers.
The F-35, which got its numerical designation after Lockheed won the contract five years ago, is to make its first flight this fall.
Myself? I was holding out for Crusader II. In honor of the “last gunfighter.” Which somehow missed the cut for final selection.
Huh.
Anyways, as the article finishes up, what the services end up calling their jets is often not what pilots call them:
In the Air Force, “very few guys I know call the F-16 the Fighting Falcon,” Maj. Roberts said. “It’s the Viper.”
And Mr. Sweetman observed that the A-10, a ground attack jet still in use, is officially the Thunderbolt II but is affectionately called the Warthog because of its clunky lines.
“It’s silly business, really,” Mr. Sweetman said, “because the aircraft are very seldom known by their real names.”
Yeah. The A-6 Intruder? “Flying Drumstick.” Sorry, B2. The A-7 Corsair II? “SLUF,” and “Sewerpipe,” among others – sorry, Jonboy. F-14 Tomcats were “Turkeys,” until just recently. On account of how graceful they looked, coming aboard. Now? We calls ‘em dinosaurs, gomen nasai, Pinch.
You: “What about the Hornet, Lex?”
Me: “Oh, that? That’s what we self-deprecatingly refer to as, ‘God’s jet.’”
(Little something for the boyz in Oz, there, btw.)
Thought the Hornet was called “Lawn Dart” or “Plastic Jet” or “Jack of all trades master of none”?
F-16 also = “Electric Chicken,” or so I’ve heard. And yeah, the F/A-18 is the Plastic Bug. I’ve heard lots of those unofficial names over my years of chatting with pilots and reading military stuff. “Drumstick” for the A-6 is a new one on me, though.
In any case, whatever nickname the F-35 ends up with, IMO reusing the “Lightning” name is almost as stupid as reusing the “Thunderbolt” name (which itself was often replaced by the unofficial “Jug”) was. The Lightning is and always will be the P-38; the Thunderbolt is and always will be the P-47. Somebody in the five-sided asylum understood this well enough in 1991, because “Lightning II” was also floated as a name for the F-22, before it was named the Raptor. Let’s hope somebody down there shows the same level of common sense this time around.
The F-16 was the “lawn dart” – especialy after losing a few early on in the program.
As for the F-35, hmmmm. Too bad the Boeing design didn’t win – that would have inspired some interesting names.
Based on it’s appearance though, I’d call it the F-35 “Ditto.”
Shouldn’t be hard to figure that one out.
A question, what does the “SL” in SLUF stand for? I assume that the UF is the same as BUFF for the B-52.
Being English originally and all, I have a pretty big spot in my heart for the Spitfire (I’d hate to have to learn German, bitte). I’m not hot on the Lightning II name, but I’d say at least keep it American if they’re going nostalgic. Someday the Brits might build something worthy of the Spit’s name…maybe…hey, it could happen.
SLUF is Short Little etc. The YF-23 was unoffically called the Black Widow II in reference to the P-61 night fighter. I like ditto for the F-35. I’d call the F-22 the flying green house because of that recent accident with the unopening canopy.
Scott,
“SL” = Short/Small. You have the rest right.
Lex,
Did your recent SEATAC exposure do something to your mind? Did you seriously believe that the USAF would extend “jointness” to naming an airplane they alone seem to want after a Navy gunfighter? Names like “Avenger” – “Dauntless” – “Intruder” “Sky Warrior” – “Vigilante” and “Crusader” are gone forever.
Of course the USN is now naming CVN’s after dead and not-so-dead politicians.
How about “Bouncing Check” or “Budget Burner”?
“Fiscal Defenestrator”?
I could go on. “Black Mamba” appears to be in there, too.
Slow littly ugly, eh. Fellow. As I recall.
I just hope the sumbitch Lightnin has some range and gets us back in the game…Plus, it better be plumbed as a tanker!
re- “The Lord’s Jet” (barf). Just a stirrin those turds Lex, eh? Are you claiming Hornette B-hood with the Rhino community? I thought that for you “legacy Hornet” drivers, the sun set on the “C”. Because well, ahem, those Rhinos are populated by ex-Turkey drivers, and God forbid, bags’ o’sand (your description of ‘FOs)! Am I wrong?
B2
BTW- SLUF also = Jerry Tuttle’s callsign, who also used to drive ‘em! Real piece o’work.
Hornet aka “Bug”. Appropriate given its constant need to stick its probe in the basket. “Lawn Dart” was also used early on, again in reference to its short legs (ie. without a tanker it was a one-way, short range pointy weapon – much like a … lawn dart). All in good fun Lex!
You forgot the S-3 Viking (everybody does) which was known as the Hoover (War Hoover if Harpoon loaded) due to the strange sucking sounds produced by spooling up the TF-34′s (same engines as the Hogs BTW). The E-2 Hawkeye aka Hummer again due to the sound made by the props.
As for SLUF, just before my time but it was either Short Little Ugly F… or Slow Little, can’t remember which.
Wolf, if you’ll look at the side-view of an A-6 and squint when you’re hungry, you’ll see it. The reverse also works: next time you fire up the grill, grab a chicken leg, stick wings and a tail on it and fly it around the yard.
I’d call the F-35 the mini me or mini raptor.
We called the Sky Warrior (ours was the EKA-3D, talk about mission creep) “The Whale” because it was huge. It was also known as “All Three Dead” because it had no ejection seats and getting out intact in dire circumstances was unlikely.
Steve,
Oh, I agree the “Drumstick” name fits. I just never heard it before.
The were also known as just plain “ugly.” Although their aircrew liked ‘em fine, pilots and bombardiers – shame on you B2 for your nav bag comment. Or was it sand bag?
Anyways. The EA-6B, having twice the numbers of seats, got to be known as “Double Ugly.”
Ah, nothing like the comraderie of naval aviation: “Does this hurt? How bout now? Now does it hurt?”
At the risk of betraying my age, I seem to recall one of the early nicknames for the Hornet being “Fruit Fly”, that in itself being a play on the F/A designation…
As for Lightning II — sorry, just strikes me as lazy; why spend a little bit of creative juices when you can just call it a “Whatever II”?
Heck, at that rate, since it is obviously derived from the F-22, why not call it “MiniMe”?
SJS
Of the “finalist” names listed in the article, I like “Reaper” myself. Meaning no offense, of course, towards heritage names.. I just think it sounds better than “Lightning Jr.”
“Black Mamba” sounds like Pizza Hut’s latest specialty dish or maybe an overpriced shoe made by Nike. “Cyclone”… well, no need to go naming high-tech aircraft after a college football team from Iowa. Besides, that could lead to this:
“A review by Air Force lawyers for potential trademark violations and other objections has winnowed out names proposed by other allies, the U.S. officer said.
Britain proposed Fury, a favorite of many Lockheed and military officials but a name that risked a trademark conflict with the Plymouth Fury auto, this officer said. ”
I’m… surprised.. that those folks actually have to vet the names of their vehicles so that automakers and whoever-else can’t sue. I guess maybe that’s why A-10 drivers don’t refer to their aircraft as the “Razorback”.
Anyone know if the F-111 was called the Pig in USAF service? It’s pretty much offical down here.
Bugs, Pigs, Boos, great fun. That said I’m not sure HugBug sounds all that warrie.
BTW Lex – The 20th anniversary Bug is very nice looking in real life. You might like these two as well.
http://tinyurl.com/mrh2z
http://tinyurl.com/nnmvj
Cap’n,
‘Back in the day’, I had the distinct pleasure of working at Crystal City’s JPII (I’m sure one of your tenure remembers THAT place). While I was happily working on the V-22, the guys working the newest carrier based ‘air to mud delivery system’ kept complaining about certain aspects of their new toy. Too many requirements for the data bus to handle. Guess they overcame those hurdles.
Eventually.
Over time.
With many, many engineering changes.
Why not call the F-35 what it really is?
The Single Engine, Single Guy (or Segue) for short?
Fruit Fly was also a term used by the Tomcat drivers for the A-7 (SLUF) because we were small (compared to an F-14, what isn’t?) hard to see and where there was one of us, there were a bunch of us. And out in Indian Country, we buzzed around the Tomcats annoyingly, but usually harmlessly.
Hey, it may have been ugly, but at least it was slow. Wait a minute, that’s not a good thing, is it?
I think that the F-111 was commonly referred to as “The ‘Vark” (short for Aardvark) and the EF-111 variant was the “Spark Vark.”
Pig…. interesting name. Many aircraft could likely qualify for it.
If they want to recycle names, I’d go with Warhawk II or Tomahawk II.
Then again, there is also the Buffalo.
FYI, Avenger II was applied to the still born A-12, aka “Flying Dorito” (itself a misnomer since the darn thing never flew but certainly consumed it’s fair share and more of $$$’s).
Buffalo was also used for the Phoenix…
SJS
i highly doubt the term “Crusader” would go over well with our arab allies. and that’s a pity cause it’s a cool name.
well, the Navy has had Hornets for years. Why not “Wasps”?
The official name of a USAF fighter has no bearing on what maintainers and pilots call a “Eagle”, or “Viper”, or “Raptor”. In the case of the Eagle, it’s usually know as simply “The 15″, or to a few, “The Pig”. Then again, even some “Legacy Bugs” share that name, while the F-35 could quite easily be called “Budget Destroyer” or “Lawn Dart II”, the latter being the Joint designation.
Either way, I gotta say, I am extremely disapointed in the name “Lighning II”. I am an engineer on the centerfuselage of of the F-35 and myself and the 10 other engineers here were all hoping for “Pheonix” or “Cyclone”. The P-38 has about as much in common with the F-35 as the Spruce Goose. The General who named the plane is quoted as saying “They are both made by lockheed…”. Wow. Lame. Hopefully, newer, more original names will surface over the life of the plane like all of you are discussing.
Of course in the military forums over at PPRuNe the F-35 is generally referred to as the ‘Dave’.
It may be respected at an aircraft but the program as a whole is looked upon with deep suspiscion