WIX Archives
Re: best aircraft nickname?
Posted by Steve T on Fri Nov 28, 2003 08:22:45 PM
In reply top best aircraft nickname? posted by Elliott on Thu Nov 27, 2003 01:30:50 PM
: Okay, this is a cheesy post, but the avenger 'turkey' post
: got me thinking (that is a good nickname for the avenger
: - no offense)
Elliott et al--
There is, of course, an absolute welter of these, and some of them are priceless...Some of the wackiest and/or most picturesque come from the early days:
Rumpety (Farman MF.11); Coffee Pot (Breguet observation); Clutching Hand (D.H.5); Mobelwagen--Furniture Van (Junkers J.I); Harry Tate (R.E.8); Whatapity (Westland Wapiti)...
A few from the WWII period:
Gabelschwanz Teufel (P-38); Jug (P-47); Flying Flapjack (XF5U/V-173); Double Twister (XP-72); Mixmaster (XA/XB-42); and probably my favourite (let's see if I get anywhere near the correct spelling), Lakirovannyi Garantirovannyi Grob (a sardonic acronym for the Soviet LaGG fighters...meaning Varnished Guaranteed Coffin...! Yikes.)
More recently we have:
Hawg and Winnie (Navy T-28 drivers' nicknames for, respectively, their own T-28s and their "rivals'" T-34Cs); Gutless (F7U); Aardvark (F-111); Whistling Wheelbarrow (AW Argosy); Electric Flickknife (Tornado); BUFF and SLUF (B-52 and A-7); and of course one nickname so eminently suitable it became quasi-official, so that now even CNN knows the Fairchild A-10 answers not to "Thunderbolt II" but to Warthog!
A fun topic...Thanx for the post.
S.