Wingspan: Did you know?

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
01/11/2018 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik

Oscar. Emily. Buck. Flora. While these may sound like your long-lost cousins from Peoria, they are actually some of the code names given to Japanese and Warsaw Pact aircraft by the US and NATO beginning in WWII. But where do these and other names come from?

Mitsubishi A6M (Type 0 carrier fighter), known to Allied pilots as the Zeke, or Zero. (Kogo via Wikimedia Commons)

During WWII, Allied pilots fighting against the Japanese were faced with the problem of quickly identifying and reporting Japanese aircraft. The Japanese military used a bewildering system of nomenclature that gave a type number based on the Japanese Imperial calendar and a description of the aircraft’s role, in addition to the manufacturer’s designation. For example, the Navy Type 96 Carrier Fighter ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) received its type number because it entered service in Imperial year 2596, which equated to the Gregorian year of 1936. And aircraft that entered service the same year shared the same type number. For example, there were no less than 15 Type 97 aircraft. Compounding the confusion was the fact that the Japanese didn’t give their aircraft nicknames like Mustang or Liberator. So the Allies decided to give the Japanese aircraft names of their own making.

To provide pilots and gunners with a quick method of identifying and reporting Japanese aircraft, US Army intelligence officer Cpt. Frank McCoy, along with Sgt. Francis Williams and Cpl Joseph Grattan, devised a system that assigned easy-to-remember, sometimes comical male first names to fighters, such as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and female first names to all other aircraft, such as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for the twin-engine bomber and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for the carrier-based dive bomber. One version of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter (officially known as the Zeke, but commonly called the Zero), was named Hap in honor of General !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but Arnold objected to the name and it was changed to Hamp. Not only could pilots quickly identify and report an aircraft, other pilots immediately knew if it were a fighter or a bomber.

MiG-25, NATO reporting name Foxbat (Alex Beltyukov via Wikimedia Commons)

Following the war, the countries of the NATO Alliance were faced with the same problem of quickly identifying and reporting Soviet, Eastern Bloc, and Chinese aircraft. Like the Japanese, the Russians generally did not give their aircraft nicknames like Phantom or Superfortress. So NATO devised reporting names similar to those used by the Allies in WWII, but with a more rigorous system, one which is still in use today. One-syllable English words (usually first names) are given to fixed-wing propeller aircraft ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ), while two-syllable names denote jet aircraft ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ). And the first letter of the name is determined by the type of aircraft the name belongs to.

F – Fighters and ground attack aircraft ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

B – Bombers ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

C – Commercial aircraft, airliners, cargo aircraft ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

H – Helicopters ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

M – Miscellaneous, such as trainers, reconnaissance, seaplanes, tankers, etc. ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

Words beginning with the letters A, K, G and S also are used to identify missiles, depending on their type: A for air-to-air ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ); K for air-to-surface ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ); G for surface-to-air ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ); S for surface-to-surface ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ). And it’s not just aircraft and missiles. NATO also assigns names to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and other !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! such as radar systems.

Sukhoi Su-25, NATO reporting name Frogfoot (Aleksandr Markin via Wikimedia Commons)

So, even if you don’t know the specific manufacturer’s designation for a Russian or Chinese aircraft, you can at least identify its mission based on its NATO reporting name. And for NATO pilots, it’s not necessary to say “MiG-31” or keep track of its 12 variants. Pilots can just say “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ” and it will denote any MiG-31. And other pilots will know they have a jet fighter to contend with.

A complete list of Japanese fighter recognition names can be found !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .
Complete lists of NATO reporting names can be found !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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If you enjoyed this post, please join in the conversation and let me know. For more posts about airplanes, aviation history and aircraft oddities, set your course for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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DISCUSSION (4)

user314 > ttyymmnn
01/11/2018 at 13:28

Russian aircraft may not get official nicknames, but much like their NATO counterparts, their crews have names for them, some loving, some not so. The MiG-21 is called “balalaika”, given its passing resemblance to the stringed instrument, while the MiG-25 was called (“alcohol truck”) or Letaushchii gastronom (“flying liquor store”) by ground crew, who would occasionally tap its surprisingly large reservoir of alcoholic deicing fluid .

facw > ttyymmnn
01/11/2018 at 13:33

It seems like they’ve stopped giving names? The Flanker and Fulcrum families still use those names, and the Su-47 got a name, but the Su-57/T-50/PAK FA doesn’t have seem to have one, and in the transport space, even aircraft that have been around a long time like the Il-96 and Tu-204 don’t seem to have names (though maybe the Il-96 is considered close enough to the Il-86 to be another Camber?).

The newer Chinese fighters don’t seem to have names either, the J-10's Wikipedia page say it is Firebird, but the linked source doesn’t say that, and a quick search didn’t find any collaborating info. The J-20 and J-31 don’t seem to have any designation.

AfromanGTO > user314
01/11/2018 at 13:36

Occasionally tap? Or is/was the crew the reason the ground crew constantly has to top that off?

ttyymmnn > facw
01/11/2018 at 13:45

I have not done any research into contemporary practice, so I’m afraid I can’t answer your question. I did not, however, come across anything that said that NATO had ditched the practice.