So, I was doing some thinking recently about the term "approved names" and why it was used. As noted in an edit to a
previous post, a newspaper article dating to the implementation of names notes that "(i)n carrying out this plane-naming plan, the manufacturers' suggested names were given first consideration and, unless there was good reason, these suggestions were approved." But what were these exceptions? Why did they need to be approved? Presumably there were some that didn't make the cut. As covered in a
previous post, there's a proposed list of names that weren't adopted. However, these came from a commander in the military itself - which is not the scenario described above. So then what were they? Although it is hard to say for certain, there are a few hints buried in the historical record that seem to offer evidence of these rejected names.
The most famous case is the P-51 "
Apache". Other than noting its brief existence, there's not much to say here that hasn't been
done to death already.
A few early works call the B-26 as the Martin "
Martian", but these quickly disappear. (For example, no less than the
27 October 1942 edition of
Victory, the "official weekly bulletin of the Office of War Information", refers to it as such. The article is then picked up by the
13 November 1942 edition of
The Aeroplane magazine and is repeated on
page 21 of the booklet
War Planes of the World.) If the theory holds, it was swatted down by the Joint Aircraft Committee. What's interesting about this name is that it came back around when Martin built the massive JRM flying boats. So someone on the committee apparently warmed up to the idea.
Citing Bowers, Baugher notes on his
P-38D page that "[f]or a brief period, the USAAF considered naming the P-38 '
Atlanta'". This would be in line with the British tendency to name aircraft after cities and would have ironically resulted in it bearing the name of the location that the merged Lockheed Martin would operate starting in 1951. However, Bowers does not technically explicitly state that the USAAF considered the name, stating in a parenthetical phrase on page 291 of
United States Military Aircraft Since 1909 that "Atlanta having been considered for a brief interim period". It's possible that this name was proposed by Lockheed, although it seems unlikely given their predilection for astronomical monikers.
Lastly, there is the F7F, which is noted that it was originally suggested to have been named the "
Tomcat", but was rejected for being too risqué. (Personally, I've never understood why, but as
one comment on a Facebook post by the U.S. Naval Institute relates: "My mom used the phrase, 'Out tomcattin' around' for someone who was promiscuous or philandering. She was born in '25." Further evidence of its prominence at the time and slang meaning comes from the fact that a Fletcher-class destroyer, the
USS Colahan, used the term as a nickname as well. A book on the ship explains on
page 205 that it acquired the name from the Tomcat Destroyer Squadron which was "'called that because it was prowling around at all hours, fifty or more miles from the main force, with a CAP flying cover.'") According to Grumman test pilot Corky Meyer:
Corky Meyer wrote:
Early in the XF7F-1 flight-test program, the flight-test group informally dubbed it "Tomcat." The name seemed to fit a night fighter, so Grumman proffered it to the BuAer fighter desk in Washington D.C. and was surprised when the name was denied. The Navy letter stated, "The name 'Tomcat' is unacceptable. It denotes feline promiscuity." Period; end of message. It did accept the second name "Tigercat," as not being as socially and politically unacceptable.
(Source:
WW2Aircraft.net)
The anecdote notes that this occurred "[e]arly in the XF7F-1 flight-test program" and given that the aircraft first flew on 2 November 1943, this would place it around only a year after names for aircraft were first announced, so it seems that "Tomcat" could have been another casualty of the board.
In conclusion, I don't know whether all of the above are examples of the Sub-Committee on Naming of Aircraft of the Joint Aircraft Committee in action, but they do paint a picture of why the names assigned to aircraft were referred to as "approved names" at the time.
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