So, I think I found the source of
Mr. Savile-Sneath's ire:
AP wrote:
Airplane Name For the Future
---
(By Associated Press.)
Washington, Oct. 27. - The name aeroplane to designate heavier than aircraft has been discarded officially by the national advisory committee for aeronautics. In a report issues (sic) today on "Nomenclature for aeronautice" (sic) the name airplane is substituted for any "form of aircraft heavier than air which has wing surfaces for sustenation, with stabilizing surfaces, rudders for steering, and power plant for propulsion through the air. The landing gear may be suited for either land or water use."
An introduction to the report says it is to eliminate duplications and erroneous use of aeronautical terms. Only new terms, peculiar to aeronautics, are defined in the appended list of 142 words and phrases.
Examination of the preferred terms shown, indicates that an effort has been made to eliminate also all foreign words which have come into use through the development of aircraft. Most of these are French. Very few such words have been retained, however, even such terms as volplane being discarded in favor of glide and volpique rejected for nose dive. One French term retained is cabre, which is defined as meaning the flying attitude of a machine which travels "down by the stern when in air.
(Source: “
Airplane Name For the Future,”
Charlotte News, October 27, 1916, 1.)
I would think he would at least be happy that the French terms were being thrown out. I do find it ironic that the claimed premise for the change also seems to be based on the idea of only using the most logical and accurate terms, since that is one of his objections to the American term "propeller".
As an aside, I seem to remember it being suggested
somewhere that the reason for the "V" in the hull classification symbol for aircraft carriers ("CV") and designations for naval squadrons ("VF") was that it came from the French word "voler" meaning "to fly". Apparently, the former begin in 1920, so this article could be seen providing evidence against that argument. (I have to admit, it sounds just as equally flimsy an explanation as the
multiple theories for why U.S. aircraft registrations start with "N".)
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