K5DH wrote:
Building on what Steve said just above, I understand that many Russian aircraft names are treated similarly. For example, a Sukhoi model 24 would be written as "Su 24" and pronounced "Soo twenty-four", not written as "SU-24" or pronounced "S U twenty-four". A Mikoyan-Gurevich model 29 would be written "MiG 29" (no hyphen).
Experts on Russian aircraft... the above commentary is subject to your correction, of course!
What started out as a minor rant is actually becoming a fun and interesting thread!
+1! (to both)
I used to be a partner in an IT support firm where one of the other partners had immigrated to the US from Russia. He told me the exact same thing about the proper pronunciation of the Russian/Soviet military aircraft designations. If you think about it, that's exactly how we all pronounced "MiG" all along.
That being the case, it can get confusing if you start talking about a "Too-95" Bear for example...or was that "2-95"? Even so, I always liked the habit of calling the "Too-144" SST airliner "Concordeski" as well.
I'm also sure that by now most folks know or realize that Antonov, Mikoyan Gurevich, Sukhoi, Tupolev, etc. were not "manufacturers" of Soviet-era aircraft; they were simply "design bureaus" and the aircraft were actually built in "state" factories.