Cars named after (or same as) WW2 and 1950s aircraft?

[SaparotRob]

The icon on the car itself shows a pony and not an airplane:

View attachment 791423

I'd much rather see the fighter plane, of course. That would be the coolest auto logo ever.

Royalties.

 

[GrauGeist]

The BMW emblem, complete with the four colored quadrants, is a spinning airplane propeller.

Yes, the logo was to touch on their aircraft engine manufacturing heritage.

Same with many older GM vehicles, which had a carriage logo on the rocker panel step plate: "Body by Fisher".
Fisher manufactured carriages and buggies before the advent of the automobile.

 

[cammerjeff]

I also forgot about a couple of Canadian Pontiac Models of the 1990's, They rebadged a version of the Chevy Corsica as the Tempest, and the Geo Metro as the Firefly.

 

[Snowman]

Buick Skyhawk (Douglas A-4 Skyhawk)
Buick Electra (Lockheed L-188 Electra, Lockheed L-10 Electra)
Pontiac Phantom Concept Car (McDonnell FH Phantom)
Pontiac Ventura (Lockheed Ventura)
Pontiac Executive (Spartan Executive)
Oldsmobile Toronado (North American B-45 Tornado)
GM Saturn (Lockheed Saturn)
Dodge Demon (McDonnell F3H Demon)
Plymouth Fury (North American FJ-1 Fury)
Mercury Cougar (Grumman F9F Cougar)
Mercury Marauder (Martin B-26 Marauder)
Packard Clipper Constellation (Lockheed Constellation)
Ford Scorpio (Northrop F-89 Scorpion)

 

[Alan Stevens]

There was a Buick concept car, the Le Sabre.
I have often seen cars along side the road I would call the "Thud".
There is of course, the Ford pickup series - the F-100.

As in North American F-86 Sabre

North American F-100 Super Sabre

 

[GrauGeist]

North American F-100 Super Sabre

Was named in honor of the Ford F-100 half-ton pickup truck.

 

[AMCKen]

I believe that many of them are name after the same, earlier, place/concept/person rather than the cars after the aircraft.

 

[MIflyer]

Dodge Hellcat.

 

[Peter Gunn]

Going back to the Mustang, yes, Lee Iacocca approached North American and actually wanted to use the image of a P-51, not the horse.

North American basically told him to pound sand as they weren't about to have their most iconic aircraft decorate some cheap little Ford. And yes, the mustang was a cheap little car back at the beginning. It's mentioned in several books about Ford and Lee Iacocca wrote about it himself a couple of times.

 

[SaparotRob]

Going back to the Mustang, yes, Lee Iacocca approached North American and actually wanted to use the image of a P-51, not the horse.

North American basically told him to pound sand as they weren't about to have their most iconic aircraft decorate some cheap little Ford. And yes, the mustang was a cheap little car back at the beginning. It's mentioned in several books about Ford and Lee Iacocca wrote about it himself a couple of times.

Thanks for this post. I thought I was losing my mind again.

 

[MIflyer]

And yes, the mustang was a cheap little car back at the beginning.

I remember my Dad, an auto mechanic, saying it was nothing more than a Ford Falcon with a new body.

 

[MIflyer]

It is amazing how many automobile ads on TV in reality are selling airplanes, sometimes complete with radio chatter in the background and even some with the car climbing through the clouds.

There was a full color glossy insert in Air and Space Magazine some years back that had on its first page a gorgeous picture of a Beaver on floats sitting on a beautiful mountain lake, with a cabin in the foreground. What were they selling? Airplanes? Flight instruction? Hunting trips? Cabin sites? Well, open it and you see they are selling Pickup Trucks!

Okay, the pickup truck CANNOT get to the cabin because it clearly is only accessible by airplane.....

More recently, there was a TV commercial where they go find a dusty F6F Hellcat in the desert and soon have it looking brand new. They were shown towing it with a pickup truck.

 

[special ed]

My shop chief in the AF res (1963-65)said the mustang had "sparrow suspension." Of course, his work car was a 1938 Packard coupe.

 

[SaparotRob]

More recently, there was a TV commercial where they go find a dusty F6F Hellcat in the desert and soon have it looking brand new. They were shown towing it with a pickup truck.

So they cleaned it to get it dusty all over again?

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Buick Skyhawk (Douglas A-4 Skyhawk)
Buick Electra (Lockheed L-188 Electra, Lockheed L-10 Electra)
Pontiac Phantom Concept Car (McDonnell FH Phantom)
Pontiac Ventura (Lockheed Ventura)
Pontiac Executive (Spartan Executive)
Oldsmobile Toronado (North American B-45 Tornado)
GM Saturn (Lockheed Saturn)
Dodge Demon (McDonnell F3H Demon)
Plymouth Fury (North American FJ-1 Fury)
Mercury Cougar (Grumman F9F Cougar)
Mercury Marauder (Martin B-26 Marauder)
Packard Clipper Constellation (Lockheed Constellation)
Ford Scorpio (Northrop F-89 Scorpion)

I'd buy a car named a Superfortess, so long as it had 12 remote-controlled .50s, and a 20mm stinger. I got your rush-hour hangin'.

 

[SaparotRob]

And tail fins.

 

[Alan Stevens]

Going back to the Mustang, yes, Lee Iacocca approached North American and actually wanted to use the image of a P-51, not the horse.

North American basically told him to pound sand as they weren't about to have their most iconic aircraft decorate some cheap little Ford. And yes, the mustang was a cheap little car back at the beginning. It's mentioned in several books about Ford and Lee Iacocca wrote about it himself a couple of times.

How is an image of a P-51 copyrighted?

How could they prevent Ford from using it?

Besides, that is the name the UK Air Ministry gave it.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

How is an image of a P-51 copyrighted?

How could they prevent Ford from using it?

Besides, that is the name the UK Air Ministry gave it.

Wouldn't be copyright, but trademark law. I don't think NA registered any image of the P-51 as a trademark. The name itself doesn't matter, nor who gave it that name, unless the name itself was registered as a trademark. I doubt the name was registered because Ford did in fact use it without any lawsuit arising from it.

If Ford wanted to use the image of a P-51 and NA hadn't trademarked it, Ford could legally do so, in most cases, unless NA had already been using a P-51 image in promo material long enough that it had been accepted as norm.

Copyright covers creations of art. Trademark covers badges of business identification. If NA didn't register the image or name of a P-51 Mustang as a business trademark, it would be up in the air. There's case law for unregistered designs or names still being regarded as protected but that's only after lots of lawyer fees.

Gibson Guitars won recognition of its open-book headstock design, not trademarked, through litigation in the 70s against copycats. On the other hand, Fender Guitars lost its trademark case defending the Fender Jaguar's body design against copycats. A big part of both cases was how long was the shape involved deemed a matter of corporate identity.

North American would have to meet that same hurdle. How long and often did they use the silhouette of a Mustang as a corporate marker? Was it registered or simply implicit? And so on.

 

[Alan Stevens]

Wouldn't be copyright, but trademark law. I don't think NA registered any image of the P-51 as a trademark. The name itself doesn't matter, nor who gave it that name, unless the name itself was registered as a trademark. I doubt the name was registered because Ford did in fact use it without any lawsuit arising from it.

If Ford wanted to use the image of a P-51 and NA hadn't trademarked it, Ford could legally do so, in most cases, unless NA had already been using a P-51 image in promo material long enough that it had been accepted as norm.

Copyright covers creations of art. Trademark covers badges of business identification. If NA didn't register the image or name of a P-51 Mustang as a business trademark, it would be up in the air. There's case law for unregistered designs or names still being regarded as protected but that's only after lots of lawyer fees.

Gibson Guitars won recognition of its open-book headstock design, not trademarked, through litigation in the 70s against copycats. On the other hand, Fender Guitars lost its trademark case defending the Fender Jaguar's body design against copycats. A big part of both cases was how long was the shape involved deemed a matter of corporate identity.

North American would have to meet that same hurdle. How long and often did they use the silhouette of a Mustang as a corporate marker? Was it registered or simply implicit? And so on.

Besides, the P-51s were purchased by the U.S. government. The planes belonged to them and its not like an image of a warplane should ever become a trademark.

North American built a number of iconic aircraft. Which one would be a trademark?

North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service Module, the second stage of the Saturn V rocket, the Space Shuttle orbiter and the B-1 Lancer.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Besides, the P-51s were purchased by the U.S. government. The planes belonged to them and its not like an image of a warplane should ever become a trademark.

North American built a number of iconic aircraft. Which one would be a trademark?

North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service Module, the second stage of the Saturn V rocket, the Space Shuttle orbiter and the B-1 Lancer.

Even though the P-51 was purchased by the govt, NAA was well within its rights to have an image of it trademarked. Hell, I could take an image of the P-51 and use it as a trademark so long as it doesn't infringe on NAA intellectual property -- which is different from their design patents etc.

Again, that could be argued in court on an informal basis, especially because we so identify the Mustang with NAA in common culture, moreso than any other of the great planes and craft you've listed. NAA would still be hard-put without marca registrada to have a solid case.

So far as I can tell, the image or likeness of the P-51 doesn't belong to anyone legally.