OT: US Bomber Designations

So after the B-52 or higher, why did the numerical sequence start over with B-1, B-2???

Craig

Reply to
Craig
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All the designations started over in about 1962 or so with the unification of Navy, Army, and Air Force designations. C- numbers were up to at least

142.
Reply to
Jim Atkins

Actually, to the XB-68 and the SM-68 (Titan ICBM). Why? That idiot McNamara. During a briefing one morning, He got confused between the USAF F-110 Phantom II and the US Navy F-4 Phantom II and went ballistic. It led to a major redesignation of ~all~ services types in the US military.

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

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

Reply to
The Old Timer

Then please explain "(X)B-70 Valkyrie"...

Reply to
Edwin Ross Quantrall

As the immediately previous post pointed out, there was the B-69, then the B-70 (RS-70) and B-71 (RS-71/SR-71) which were in the pipeline before McN's renaming game.

Reply to
steve gallacci

Very simple, actually. When I opened the =inside cover of Lloyd Jones' "US Bombers, B-1 (1928) to B-1 (1980s), I was holding the dust jacket against the outside cover. On the inside page, I saw the XB-68 and the SM-68. Directly underneath, I saw the B-1. In my left hand, had I looked, I would have seen the others. So the answer is that I screwed up. Sorry......

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

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

Reply to
The Old Timer

IIRC, the F-110 was designated Specter in the old system and not Phantom II. Who needs the confusion?

While I rather despise Robert S. McNamara for his turn at the DoD and at Ford Motor Company, if his was the hand that consolidated the various nomenclature systems into what has evolved into the current system (mercifully scratching the archaic and absurd USN BuAer system), than I would count that as one thing he got right in his career.

Maybe the ONE and ONLY thing.

WmB

Reply to
WmB

So, IF the F-4 in AF use had stayed the F-110 Specter (isn't it Spectre?), wonder what the AC-130 would've been called in that case?

Reply to
Frank May

A lot of these spelling differences were the result of Noah Webster's reshaping the language to make a distinct 'American' tongue. I'm thankful we dumped 'iz' for 'is'. There were several other examples presented on "Jeopardy" the other evening. Personally, I've spent too many years reading British aviation journals and have had my spellings warped. ;)

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Reply to
Bill Banaszak

And of course they started all over again in the 80/90s in the 'T' series.

Reply to
Dave Fleming

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