DeHavilland-Canada a/c operated by the US Army. Names?

Heh...reminds me of old man Mac's supposed predilection toward the pagan...Demon, Banshee, Goblin, Voodoo, Phantom...wonder what the truth really was...

According to google the Cayuse Indians are an extinct tribe. And here I thought it was slang for a horse.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Don't know...I do know that now there is a gov agency that specifically hands out the names to the manufacturers as part of the procurement process. They generally will solicit suggestions, but if you try and buck thier choice you usually end up losing.

I don't know if it's been this way all along, or if this came along out of "political correctness", or what. Would be interesting to hear the history, if anyone has the inside scoup...I'd be willing to believe that in the "olden days" it was more just an issue of marketing or PR though, and left to the individual companies - once a line/theme was initiated, it was simply continued...at least, that's my guess.

Same goes for the so-called "Century Series"...no more series...in fact, I doubt there ever really was a "series", just some fortuitous timing of the letting of the contracts...and as singletons, to as many builders at that. I've mentioned my take on the appearant "holes" or "gaps" in fighter numerical "series" before arrising due to paper studies which are assigned a contract number but never see the light of day - JSF is the latest perfect example. I got reminded recently that the early-on McDonnell loser was in fact designated X-34 (which was subsequently recycled to a reusable space vehicle); the public never got to see this paper study, and so it looks like there is a "gap" in the so-called "series". I forget how many of them were actually contracted in the original RFP...but they got down selected to contract numbers 32 and 35 in any case...you know the rest. There really isn't a "series" of fighter numbers...at least, not anymore.

I also know that it's also one of the many reasons I believe that the model companies would win in court over usage of such nomenclature as "Hornet", or "Tomcat" on thier boxes and labeling...I don't think the manufacturer actually holds the rights for such nomenclatures unless the item under contract was actually developed with private monies and then contracted to the gov.

I just found this...one could browse it for hours, but I'll start you here:

I thought it was some scheme that all the manufacturers participated in: Lockheed used 'Stars', Douglas used 'Sky-', Martin used words beginning with 'M', Northrop was into venom, Vought mined the pirate genre, minus the Crusader, Republic was into Thunder- and Boeing, well, they went from Flying Forts to Superforts to Stratoforts with Strato- becoming the favoured prefix for the rest of the crowd. Convair was all over the map.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Hudson, Harvard, Maryland, Baltimore, Boston/Havoc, Mitchell, Buffalo, Catalina, Dakota, Mohawk...

My buddy's dad worked for Curtiss during the Second World War and he told me of a story (disclaimer: may be true or may be hype) concerning the P-55. Curtiss polled their employees for a name (heretofore they had all been Hawk or a derivitive of it like Warhawk). One wag from the line came up with "Ascender", which the management thought was an inspiring name. It wasn't until some time later, after the name was officially announced, that they found out that his original spelling of the name was "Ass-Ender", probably because of it being a pusher rather than a tractor. Story courtesy of the late Gene Priester, from Buffalo New York.

-- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger

Thanks for a great site Rufus, I picked up a reasonably accurate toy of this aircraft a year ago. Scaled out to almost exactly 1:48. I was thinking of accurizing it.

-- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger

That's true - the Army did not name these a/c. But those names were adopted as their official names while in US Army service.

Another example is the AH-1G Huey Cobra, which was named by Bell.

John Hairell ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com)

Hugh wrote and Bill replied:

They never got around to naming a helo after the old indian tribe of navigators!

Rick Clark MFE

Huh?

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Bill replied to:

with....

You know Bill, the "Fug-Ah-Wees"

Rick Not cross posted anywhere else.

Well call me osmium because I'm not getting it through yet.

Bill Banaszak, MFE, Order of the Osmium

As in "Where the fug ah wee?"

Bill wrote and Ron replied:

We can tell that Bill didn't watch much Johnny Carson. He got away with that one for almost twenty years.

Rick

don't forget the network making f troop change it to ha cow ee.

Ah, the light shines! Thanks, Ron.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Not a lot when I was younger. When I got on second shift I had a better excuse for being up that late. What I remember best are the Mighty Carson Art Players doing the Late Show bits..."until you come to the fork in the road!"

I did not know that. And I even considered that Rick was making an obscure reference to them!

Bill Banaszak, MFE

yeah, the writers tried to slide fu cow ee through but the network clods nixed it.

"Slick" = Troop carrier "Dustoff" = Medivac "Gunship" = Well, you know...