If World War II American Aircraft Were Named After Designers

[Noha307]

As a fun exercise, I started wondering: What if American World War II aircraft were named after their individual designers, rather than their companies, the same way German/Soviet aircraft were? (In other words, how "Fw" was replaced by "Ta" when Kurt Tank took over, or how the LaGG-3 was followed by the La-5.) Here's what I came up with:

• Beisel F4U Corsair
• Berlin P-40 Warhawk
• Berlin SB2C Helldiver
• Brown-MacCart F2A Buffalo
• Emery-Wells B-17 Flying Fortress
• Hall TBF Avenger
• Heinemann A-20 Havoc
• Heinemann A-26 Invader
• Heinemann SBD Dauntless
• Hermes L-3
• Kartveli P-47 Thunderbolt
• Laddon B-24 Liberator
• Laddon PBY Catalina
• Magruder B-26 Marauder
• Northrop P-61 Black Widow
• Palmer BT-13 Valiant
• Raymond C-47 Skytrain
• Schmued P-51 Mustang
• Thiebolt PT-19
• Woods P-39 Airacobra

Anybody have any other additions?

[Mark Sampson]

Johnson P-38
P-80
C-60
A-29
PV-1
PV-2
etc., etc.
But of course none of the aircraft mentioned were designed by one person... they were all done by teams of talented and hard-working designers, ably led by the 'names'. So it's probably best that the aircraft should have taken the names of the companies that designed and built them.

[ZRX61]

As a fun exercise, I started wondering: What if American World War II aircraft were named after their individual designers, rather than their companies, the same way German/Soviet aircraft were? (In other words, how "Fw" was replaced by "Ta" when Kurt Tank took over, or how the LaGG-3 was followed by the La-5.) Here's what I came up with:

Anybody have any other additions?

British:

Mitchell Spitfire

Chadwick Lancaster/Lincoln/Shackleton

Chadwick Vulcan

Camm Hurricane

Camm Typhoon & Tempest

Petter Lightning

[shrike]

A flaw from the beginning is that German aircraft were named for the manufacturer as well, otherwise you'd have:

Guenter 51 ,70, 100 , 111, 112

Lusser 108,109,110,280,219

Voigt 264, 328 ,Cutlass

Vogt 138, 141 (and oodles more)

[Stoney]

i wonder who did the AT-6?

[bdk]

As an engineer, I find that concept rather insulting!

I can understand having the manufacturer name, but naming the plane after one engineer takes away the credit from hundreds and even thousands of other engineers involved in the process.

[Aeronut]

As an engineer, I find that concept rather insulting!

I can understand having the manufacturer name, but naming the plane after one engineer takes away the credit from hundreds and even thousands of other engineers involved in the process.

Agreed. I have a friend (and author of one of the books on Spitfires) who questions the amount of involvement of R J Mitchell in the physical design process of the Spitfire. His reasoning being that during the period when the bulk of work was being carried out on the Spitfire Mitchell was being treated for cancer in Austria.

[Michel Lemieux]

Diemert Defender....hehe....too easy!

Did you know he had a canard version!!??

Look fake...but still...funny.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWings/comments/eo0cl7/i_may_have_finally_found_the_weirdest_wing_this/

[Randy Wilson]

And you might say, the Diemert A6M2 Zero, which it was called by some when it was acquired by the CAF. I flew it for several years in the early 1990s and was the last pilot to fly it, as far as I know. I won't comment further, thank you. Randy

P.S. The film mentioned was "The Defender" produced by the Film Board of Canada, sort of their government sponsored PBS. While flying the CAF SB2C Helldiver in Thunder Bay, at a show some years ago, after I had flown the above Zero, we were filmed by a Film Board crew and when I mentioned "The Defender" after a good round of laughs, I ended up with a new VHS copy of the movie. When I asked what their "mission" was, I was told "to document interesting Canadian citizens". When I asked how Diemert might rank in that they said "second" after "the man in the bear suit". I'll leave you to find out about that on your own. All the best to Bob these days.

Randy

[Michel Lemieux]

Good story! Tks for sharing Randy.

I do remember when the CAF Zero was the only one capable of flight. And that for many years.

But yes, I also heard that is now a lot safer...on the ground in Hawaii.

[Stoney]

Diemert A6M2 Zero and i thought that it went to the Marine Corps museum.

[Randy Wilson]

Diemert A6M2 Zero and i thought that it went to the Marine Corps museum.

Hi Stoney - the old CAF Zero is now on display at the Ford Island aviation museum. Here is a page from their site with some images, etc. All the best. Randy

https://www.pearlharboraviationmuseum.org/exhibits/a6m2/

[Michel Lemieux]

Pearl Barbour! Yes. Thank you Randy!

[shrike]

As an engineer, I find that concept rather insulting!

I can understand having the manufacturer name, but naming the plane after one engineer takes away the credit from hundreds and even thousands of other engineers involved in the process.

On the other hand, it means only send one engineer to Gulag

[Stoney]

so who did the pop rivet Zero at the Marine Corps museum?