British military aircraft designation systems

British military aircraft designations are used to refer to aircraft types and variants operated by the armed forces of the United Kingdom.

Since the end of the

Bombers were to be named after inland towns in the British Empire, for example the Avro Lancaster and Fairey Battle (after Battle, East Sussex, the site of the Battle of Hastings). With the introduction of helicopters, these were to be named after trees but only the Bristol Sycamore was named in this scheme.^[2][a]

Names

The name ('type name') of an aircraft type would be agreed between the Air Ministry or Admiralty and the manufacturer or importer when the order was placed. Names generally followed one or a number of patterns:

• Boulton Paul Ltd were given 'Bo'. From this, and the requirement to use the names of birds or insects for fighter aircraft, their first in-house fighter design was the Boulton Paul Bobolink. For bombers the additional requirement was a place-name, hence the Boulton Paul Bourges; and its contemporaries; the Airco DH.10 Amiens and Vickers Vimy (Bourges, Amiens and Vimy all being in France).^[4]
• Heavy bombers received the names of cities and towns: Short Stirling, Avro Lancaster, and Handley Page Halifax. Likewise transport aircraft also received the names of cities and towns: Avro York, Vickers Valetta, Handley Page Hastings, and Blackburn Beverley.
• Flying boats were given the names of coastal or port communities: Saro London, Supermarine Stranraer, and Short Sunderland.
• Land-based maritime patrol aircraft were named for naval explorers: Avro Anson (Admiral George Anson), Lockheed Hudson (Henry Hudson), Avro Shackleton (Ernest Shackleton), and Bristol Beaufort (Francis Beaufort).
• Aircraft for army co-operation and liaison and gliders were given names associated with mythological or legendary leaders; e.g.: Westland Lysander, Airspeed Horsa, General Aircraft Hamilcar, and Slingsby Hengist. A sense of irony was present^{[citation needed]} when some of the names were chosen as Hengist and Horsa were the mythical leaders and founders of England when the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded the British Isles in the 5th century.
• American aircraft, whether
  U.S. Navy, were not generally in the habit of giving aircraft names, and many British-chosen names would later be adopted; e.g.: the North American P-51 Mustang began life as the North American Mustang Mk.I with the Royal Air Force. U.S. Navy names, conversely, were being increasingly adopted by the Fleet Air Arm as 1942 and 1943 progressed, as in the case of the Grumman F4F Wildcat
  shedding its alternative Fleet Air Arm 'Martlet' name in favour of 'Wildcat', the original American naval name.
• Naval versions of aircraft not originally ordered for the Fleet Air Arm were given the prefix 'Sea', such as with the Hawker Sea Hurricane and de Havilland Sea Venom, while Seafire for the navalised Supermarine Spitfire was a contraction of 'Sea Spitfire'. Sometimes, the naval version entered service without a corresponding land-based type doing so, as with the Hawker Sea Fury and de Havilland Sea Vixen
  .
• Naval aircraft ordered as such had names with a nautical theme; e.g.:
  Grumman Martlet
  (the martlet being a heraldic bird) for the F4F fighter.
• Training aircraft were given names related to academic institutions:
  De Havilland Dominie, Percival Provost, Miles Magister, and Percival Proctor
  .
• Aircraft built for one role, such as the
  Spitfire
  did with the early versions so it wasn't consistent.
• A trend might also be followed by a manufacturer; Hawker Hurricane, Typhoon, Tornado, and Tempest.
• Where civilian aircraft types have been taken into service, their existing names or alphanumeric designations have often (though not always) been retained; e.g.: the Vickers VC10 or Lockheed TriStar.

The systems began to change in the immediate post-Second World War period, with the V bombers and types such as the Supermarine Scimitar. The RAF's three post-war jet-engined, swept wing strategic bombers were given names beginning with 'V' – Vickers Valiant, Avro Vulcan, and Handley Page Victor (the V bombers).

Role prefixes

Role prefixes used at various times comprise:^[5]

Mark numbers

Starting in the

Export variants of British military aircraft are usually allocated mark numbers (sometimes without a role prefix) from a higher range of numbers, usually starting at Mark 50. A converse convention was adopted for the Canadian-designed de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk, where the sole British service variant was designated Chipmunk T.10.

Up until the end of 1942, the RAF always used

The post-1948 mark numbers are variously presented in full,[9] e.g.: Hercules C Mk.3; or abbreviated,^[10] e.g.: Hercules C3 forms; and either with^[11][12] or without a full stop between the prefix and mark number. The use of the 'Mark' or 'Mk.' has gradually been dropped.

Other designation systems used for UK military aircraft

Specification numbers

From 1920 to 1949, most aircraft had an associated

• Avro 549A = Aldershot II;
• Vickers VC10 Type 1180, the tenth 'Vickers Civil' design, were (Type 1106) VC10 C1 transports converted to have additional tanker role; known in service as Vickers VC10 C1K;
• Westland WAH-64 Apache = Apache AH1.

US designations

For some aircraft types in the UK armed services which originate from established U.S. military aircraft; e.g., the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, which is currently known in RAF service as the 'C-17 Globemaster III', have used the original US designation, rather than assigning a UK specific designation.^[13]

See also

• List of aircraft of the Royal Air Force
• List of active United Kingdom military aircraft
• United Kingdom military aircraft registration number
• Japanese military aircraft designation systems
• United States Department of Defense aerospace vehicle designation
• Soviet Union military aircraft designation systems

Notes

References