RAF Aircraft Naming Conventions (1918-1950)

[Arthur_Phuxache]

In short, were there any?

Heavy Bombers: they seemed to get the big towns and cities (Lancaster, Manchester, Stirling, Halifax, Lincoln, Heyford(??) Harrow (???)) - but this falls apart with the Vickers Wellesley and Wellington, and the Handley-Page Hampden.
However, there's never a been a Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Birmingham, Liverpool, Peterborough or Toronto - but there has been a Canberra. Could any self-respecting aviator take an Avro Norwich or a Handley Page Huddersfield seriously? The Hampden brings us to...

Aliteration: Vickers, Hawker, Miles, Percival and Westland seem to have stuck to this, and Supermarine tried, but Vickers ran out of V-words very quickly, and Hawker ran out of Hs in 1936 with Hurricane, having used up most of them on the Hart/Hind family. Handley-Page stuck with H's right up until the Victor. And after.

Which would have caused confusion if the Supermarine Victory had gone into production with that name.

Which bring us to...

Fighters: Winds? (Whirlwind, Typhoon, Tempest) Insects? (Mosquito, Hornet) Adjectives? (Spitfire, Spiteful) Stellar objects (Meteor) Mythical characters/bats (Vampire). Pick a theme, guys.

Army co-operation: ahh some consistency at last, Westland Lysander, Airspeed Horsa. Mythical characters. Never mind the Auster AOP.

Medium Bombers: anything goes - Insects, Battles (Blenheim, er...Battle) , US cities (Boston, Baltimore).

Flying Boats: more consistency, sea ports! Lerwick, Sunderland, Singapore, Stranraer, Seaford (er...) London (wait a mo...), Walrus (what?) Seagull??? You nearly had a theme there, then you blew it. The Sea ports theme got re-used with Transport Aircraft, meaning the Belfast and the Hastings replaced the York.

American aircraft: Sorry you guys, the British named the Liberator, Lightning, Hudson, Mustang, Dakota (which has stuck harder to the DC-3 than 'Skytrain' or 'Skytrooper') and Harvard (ditto with regard to AT-6, Texan, SNJ).

You make life difficult for alternate historians, you do.

 

[Guernsey Donkey]

I suspect that a lot was just based on what sounded good.

Thats how i would do it.

The only other theme i can think of is when you had direct progression there was often a link - though i suspect that would fall apart if i started to think about it too much.

 

[Arthur_Phuxache]

I suspect that a lot was just based on what sounded good.

In the case of the Spitfire, that was true. Mostly it was the manufacturers that decided, rather than an Air Ministry committee, hence the mess.

 

[Charles EP M.]

I suspect that a lot was just based on what sounded good.

Thats how i would do it.

Hawker Siddely Dude-ditude

 

[Arthur_Phuxache]

Hawker Siddely Dude-ditude

"The name Armstrong Whitworth Sharknado was cruelly rejected by the AW boardroom"

 

[Archibald]

There was a Blackburn Blackburn, no kidding; and spitfire, never really understood what it mean or whether it was a play-on-word (that fighter spits fire through its guns ?)

 

[Arthur_Phuxache]

and spitfire, never really understood what it mean or whether it was a play-on-word (that fighter spits fire through its guns ?)

It was either that or the Supermarine Shrew.

 

[ForceA1]

There was a Blackburn Blackburn, no kidding; and spitfire, never really understood what it mean or whether it was a play-on-word (that fighter spits fire through its guns ?)

The Blackburn Blackburn was the most graceful aircraft ever to fly in our skies and I will not have you besmirch it's reputation.

 

[ForceA1]

The Nimrod was originally referred to as the Maritime Comet, although on the 19th March 1965 Air Commodore RHC Burnwell thought this name was too cumbersome and suggested that it should be called the Plymouth. This resulted in a series of suggestions from other personnel including Osprey, Cormorant, Slessor (after the former head of Coastal Command), Trenchard, Albatross, Drake, Venus, Dolphin, Cabot, Churchill, Winston, Woodford, Scott, Avenger, Bowhill, Tempest, Tornado, Scorpion, Explorer and Calshot.

This exchange continued until September 1966, by which time 40 different names had been considered before Nimrod was finally selected.

Tomorrow I'll try and remember to type up that alternative names for the VC-10.

 

[Arthur_Phuxache]

The Blackburn Blackburn was the most graceful aircraft ever to fly in our skies and I will not have you besmirch it's reputation.

The GA Fleet Shadower was even more glamorous than the Blackburn Blackburn

 

[ForceA1]

The GA Fleet Shadower was even more glamorous than the Blackburn Blackburn

View attachment 15655

I think that's the Airspeed Fleet Shadower.

 

[ForceA1]

As promised here are a number of alternative names for the VC10.

Prior to the VC10 there was no precedent for the RAF not naming an aircraft . The debate on what to name the VC10 started in October when the General Manager at Vickers-Armstrong (former Air Marshal Sir Geoffrey Tuttle) wrote to the current incumbent of his former position Sir Ronald Lee's. Tuttle pointed out that BOAC were not going to name their VC10s, whilst Vickers wanted all VC10s to referred to as such to help their marketing campaign. He also requested that Vickers should be consulted in regards to the name as they had their own ideas. The search a name continued until October 1963, with a special Air Ministry department, called S.6, being created for this purpose. Amongst the names suggested were Victoria (rejected as it was easily confused with Victor 1A), Vancouver, Windsor, Venture, Voyager, Vassal (this was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion referencing the recent arrest of John Vassal for spying for the USSR), Vimy (initially favoured), Weybridge (Vickers' preference, but rejected as Shorts in Northern Ireland would be responsible for construction of the forward and rear fuselages), Upavon, Valentia (rejected as the general public would think that it would be too Spanish or Irish for an RAF aircraft), Venturer ("timid passengers would find this too frightening") and Viceroy ("not appropriate in an anti-imperialist world"). It was eventually decided, that as relatively few aircraft would be ordered, the individual VC10s would be named after holders of the Victoria Cross.