The "Queen" and her RAF 1953

[Mark Allen M]

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

[JohnB]

They sure got the Washingtons (B-29s) shiney.

[cwmc]

Were the Washington's Britain's atomic bomber?
Chris...

[RareBear]

The Washingtons were phased out in 1953, 5 years before the British had a nuclear weapon capable of being carried by an aircraft. The Canberra was the first British nuclear bomber, carrying the US made Mk 7 bomb, made available to the British in 1958.

Walt

[CDF]

RAF Odiham July 1953

[Aeronut]

The Balloon was used for training paratroops. After training in the hangar and the tower they would be required to do three jumps from the basket hung below the balloon before moving on to jumps from aircraft. The balloon was only withdrawn from use in the 1990's.

[Mark Allen M]

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

[JDK]

Can someone educate me a bit as to the use of "names" the RAF and other Commonwealth countries gave American made aircraft.

Names weren't just given to US types, but to almost all military types. As a way of identifying an aircraft, IMHO, a name beats the he11 out of a designation, it's more memorable and easy to use. (See the discussion on the 'Zero' thread.) Note the UH-1 helicopter's known to everyone as a Huey, a corruption of its initial designation, easier to use than Iroquois, which it's meant to be known as. (And the 'Nancy Boats' for the USN's 1919 NC- flying boats...)

Why such names as "Martlet", "Washington" etc? and why the need for such names?

There were various systems of names which changed and had exceptions, so much so that there's been books on them; it's about as streighforward as the US designation system, and would take as long to explain, but very briefly, for the bit we're interested in:

Bombers were named after cities.

Fighters changed systems frequently, but alliteration and aggression, as well as manufacturer themes (Hawker's 'winds') prevailed.

Naval types had maritime names; fish for bombers, birds for fighters, but sometimes better US choices overcame them...
Grumman's Tarpon and Martlet became the Grumman / US Avenger and Wildcat in due course. Otherwise Blackburn Skua and Roc, Fairey Swordfish, Albacore and Barracuda.

Why Dakota for the US transport remains an endless argument, but it beats trying to decide if it's a conscripted DC-3, R2D, C-47, Skytrain, C-49, Skytrooper, or stations west...

Flying Boats were named after ports or port cities (so 'London' was a SARO flying boat, not a bomber, London being a port...)
Supermarine Stranraer, Southampton, Short Sunderland, SARO Lerwick...

Trainers had educational names, US types US educational names: NAA Harvard, Yale etc. Airspeed Oxford. Miles Magister, Master, Percival Provost.

The Avro Anson was named after an Admiral as a maritime reconnaissance type - maritime heroes? Lockheed Hudson...

When you want to sell a jet bomber to someone, name it after their capital - English Electric Canberra. (Wonder who bought that?)

The winner, of course, and entrant for the world's ugliest aircraft, is the aircraft manufacturer who had a city they could use that did the alliteration 100% and delivered the Blackburn Blackburn. I kid you not.

And so on and so forth...

Here's a nice shot of a "Washington" in flight. What would you say is the camera plane here? Lanc.?

Avro Lincoln or Shackleton, I think.

Regards,

[Mark Allen M]

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

[ErrolC]

Nicely done James. Note that geographic elements can sometimes come from the Empire/Dominions (or the USA for ones sourced from there) e.g. Short Singapore, Vickers Wellington (note the ones in the UK are not cities), so Canberra wasn't a total sellout/plug. Although NZ did buy Wellingtons (see 75 Sqn RAF).
And of course there are exceptions, oddities, technical compliance with the 'rules' while acheiving other objectives etc etc.

[ZRX61]

& while on the topic of names, lets not forget how engines get their names...

RR piston engines named after raptors, jet engines named after rivers, Bristol used Centaurus, Hercules etc from mythology...Then there were Sapphire, Beryl etc used by Armstrong etc.. who used wild animal names for their piston engines...& snakes for their turboprop engines