Aircraft nicknames - what's your favourite?

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Well one of the most famous nicknames for a plane, for all the wrong reasons

Has to be 'Spruce Goose' for the Hughes H-4 Hercules

Supposed to be ready for the war... well we all know the story
 
Common Nicknames:

Vought F7U Cutlass and a number of others: Ensign Eliminator (I expect this is one that surfaces with each generation of naval aviators.)

North American's F-100 SuperSaber and/or Grumman's F9F Cougar and probably others: Lead Sled

Grumman TBF: Turkey

Mitsubishi G4M: Type 1 Lighter

Matin PBM: Flying gas tank

Some specific aircraft carrier ship names abused: (No one can outdo the Brit's talent for this category)

HMS Courageous: Outrageous
HMS Furious: Curious
HMS Glorious: Uproarious

To take all the fun out of this thread I offer: the incomplete lists found at:

Aircraft Nicknames

List of warships by nickname - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Some fun with manufacturers...

"If its Boeing, I ain't going."
"Its a Douglas, god help us."
"Its a TriStar, call a rental car."
"Airbus - Scarebus" Fly by wire, die by fire.
Aircoupe - Scarecoupe
 
Well, if we're going with names of individual airframes, two of my favourites are the B-17 "Pullmadique" and the Mosquito "Shytot" (say them out loud).
 
I don't know how common but:
B-24 - The crate they sent the B-17 in.

SB2C - Espy Duecey ( I actually like the SOB 2nd Class nickname better but somebody got that already)

Did somebody mention the ironic "Speedy D" for SBD?
 

I believe that the name of the XP-55 was created from a competition amongst Curtiss employees. So it is quite probable that the double entendre was deliberate, and that Curtiss management either played along or didn't realise.
 
wuzak said:
I believe that the name of the XP-55 was created from a competition amongst Curtiss employees. So it is quite probable that the double entendre was deliberate, and that Curtiss management either played along or didn't realise.
Click to expand...

Kinda like apocraphyl kids cartoon series Captain Pugwash, starring Master Bates, Seaman Staines and Roger the cabin boy...
 
How about airlines:

SABENA; Such A Bad Experience Never Again, UTA; Unlikely To Arrive...

To add to RN ships, HMS Argus was nicknamed 'the Flat Iron', the RN submarines that experimented with hydrogen peroxide turbines based on Helmuth Walter's work in Hamburg were named HMS Explorer and Excalibur, these quite naturally became HMS Exploder and Excruciator.

Some favourite aircraft ones:

AM-1 Mauler; Awful Monster

B-26 was also known as 'the flying prostitue' because of its stubby wings, as in 'no visible means of support'

R-4 Hoverfly, in fact any helicopter: frustrated palm tree, flying egg beater. A quote; "helicopters don't fly, they beat the air into submission"

MiG-21 was nicknamed the balalaika by its crews due to its simplicity.

MiG-25 was called the flying restaurant due to its size.

Blackburn Buccaneer; Banana bomber, or 'nana', as in 'Blackburn nana' (say it fast). While the Bucc was still on the secret list before it had flown, employees called it the ARNA, as in 'A Royal Navy Aircraft'.

Republic XF-84 turbo prop; 'Thunderscreech'

B-1 AMSA; Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft became 'America's Most Studied Airplane'

Similarly, Panavia's MRCA; Multi Role Combat Aircraft became 'Must Refurbish the Canberra Again'

X-24 lifting bodies were known as 'the flying potatoes'

F-111 was universally known as 'the Pig' in Australia

CH-47 'S**t hook' or 'Wokka wokka' because of its less than stealthy approach.

Me 323; 'Leukoplastbomber' (Sticky tape bomber)

Do 335; 'Ameisenbar' (Ant eater)

Fw 189; 'Das fliegende auge' (The flying eye)

He 177; 'Luftwaffen feuerzeug' (Luftwaffe's lighter)

Bv 138; 'Holzschuh' (Clog)

Ar 196; 'Das fliegende aquarium' (obvious, really)

Bf 109 Gustav was sometimes called 'Beule' (boil) because of the cannon bumps on the forward cowls

The laconic and war weary Berliners nicknamed the transports during the Berlin Airlift 'Roisin Bombern', or 'Raisin Bombers', another Berlin Airlift one was 'Tarmac smashers'.
 
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Good ones Grant.

The 'Rosinen bomber' nickname was an affectionate one, apparently originating from transport pilot Gail Havorsen throwing bags of raisins and sweets out the window to children watching the aircraft landing. After a number of occasions, he was called into his Co's office, and thought he would be reprimanded - instead he was told it was doing wonders for US-German relations, and to keep doing so!
 
Thanks Evan, German school kids learned about the raisin bombers in history class, I used to date a German girl from Berlin who told me this when she found out I was into aeroplanes.

I met Gail Halvorsen once; he did a 'tour' on the 50th anniversary of the airlift in a C-54 and landed at Duxford, where he talked to enthusiasts and since I had spent a bit of time in Berlin my German girlfriend was going to Humbolt Uni there - I showed him a few photos I'd taken at Tempelhof. He was a cheery fella who didn't stop smiling!
 

There is actually several monuments to the "Rosinenbomber" in Germany.
 
Tempelhof's mural is pretty cool, there's a Hastings at the Allied Museum not far from Gatow and there's an ex-RAAF C-47 at Gatow itself. When I first visited Tempelhof - I flew in and out of there before it closed - I found where the Dak that's at the Deutches Technik Museum and the C-54 that Halvorsen flew in for preservation (he told me) had sat outside the terminal, but all that remained were these two signs telling what the aircraft were, although I found the C-54 in one of the hangars at THF. These are the photos I showed him.

Outside the main terminal is this memorial in front of the U-Bahn station Platz der Luftbrucke; lit. "Place of the Air Bridge". The three prongs represent the three routes the Allied aircraft used to fly in and out of Berlin during the Airlift. At the base of the memorial are the names of those who lost their lives on flight ops. That's the terminal in the background.



This one shows the eagle head that was severed from its body at the end of the war, outside the terminal entrance "Central Flughafen". It used to stand on the plinth on the roof between the two flag poles clutching a swastika in its claws in typical Nazi style. Wonder if there's some guy somewhere in Berlin with an enormous bronze swastika in his garage?!



Inside the main entrance of the booking hall. Tempelhof came across as one of the most hassle free airports I've ever flown into; this was before 9/11 though.



Tucked incongrously under a stairwell, and out of general visibility is this token gesture to the frantic activity that took place in Berlin in 1948 -1949. The balding guy to the left is Halvorsen. When he saw this he smiled a big smile!



Halvorsen said he actually flew that one into Tempelhof for preservation after the Airlift.



Slight thread drift; I love Berlin, cool city.
 
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Avro Lancaster - paddle steamer
Fairey Swordfish - stringbag
Supermarine Stranraer - whistling shithouse
Supermarine Walrus - shagbat
Yak 1 etc, - Yastrebok (Little Hawk), Ostronosyi (Sharp Nose)
Petlyakov Pe 2 - peshka (pawn)
Hawker Typhoon - tiffie
deHavilland Mosquito - mossie, balsa bomber, wooden wonder
Short Sunderland - flying porcupine
Tupolev SB2 - pterodactyl
 
Great stuff Chris and Grant!
Never knew there were such monuments there, but no surprise that there are.
And to meet the man himself is something else Grant - good on ya!
 
F-111 was also called the "wonderlemon"

Not so much a a name but a joke...

"Beer and airplanes - have one P-3"
 
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Armstrong Whitworth Whitley; Flying Barn Door

Handley Page Hampden; Flying Suitcase

F-16; The Electric Jet

Panavia Tornado; The Fin - the first Tornado Air Defece Variants were not fitted with their nose mounted radar and in its place was a lump of concrete for ballast, they became known as the 'Blue Circle Tornadoes' after a cement manufacturing company in the UK.

I vaguely remember reading something about a comment made about Spitfire night fighters, or was it bombers? Someone said that it's like, "...making a sow's ear out of a silk purse"
 
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