All most completly new to air plane and everything- Please Help!

[aerocowgirl]

Ok so like I said above I know very little about airplanes, so I have a question about how they name an airplane, for example the plane B-35... what does the B stand for and how about the 35, does that represent anything in particular? also if someone could tell me some general term I should know that would be great. My goal one day is to become a pilot! So thank you, and know that however you help me I am very serious about learning it. Please fill free to give me a link to a page that you think will be helpful, again thank you, and God Bless!

[Anymouse]

There's no one magical formula for figuring out how model numbers came about for various planes. It really just depends on the manufacturer for the most part. As far as military designations, that kinda depends on what policies were in effect when the plane was introduced to the fleet.

[gbrasch]

B is usually a bomber, f- fighter, A -attack, c - cargo, h - helicopter, etc, hope this helps.

[Floatsflyer]

For older military aircraft(20's,30's, 40's), P= Pursuit, T=Trainer. For civilian aircraft, the letter usually refers to the name of the designer or owner of the company--e.g. C=Cessna, P=Piper, S=Sikorsky. The most famous and ubiquitous civilian airplane, the Piper Cub J3(and subsequent J designations) was named after the designer and the 3 referred to his 3rd design.

[Zack Baughman]

Welcome to the EAA Forums Aerocowgirl. We have a great and growing community here, and we're happy to have you join us. You might find this link useful regarding aircraft designations as they relate to military aircraft in particular: http://www.wikihow.com/Understand-US...t-Designations

Cheers,
Zack

[JimRice85]

Some additional WWII USAAF

PT primary trainer
BT basic trainer
AT Advance trainer
F photo recon
O observation
L liaison
B bomber
P pursuit
A attack
C cargo
UC utility/cargo

Navy designations were infinitely more complicated.

First letter or two was primary designation with subsequent being the number of designs by said manufacturer and the last letter (before any dash model submariners) was a code for the manufacturer which may or may not have any correlation to the manufacturer's company name.

F3F. Fighter, fighter design #3 the Navy bought. The last F was the code for Grumman
F4F
F6F
F7F
F8F these were all Grumman fighter aircraft.

F4U Fighter, fourth design by Vought Aircraft

F2A Fighter, second fighter design type by Brewster Aircraft

SBD. S=Scout, B=Dive bomber, D=Douglas aircraft

TBF. TB=Torpedo bomber, F=Grumman

TBD Torpedo Bomber built by Douglass

SB2C S=Scout, B=Dive bomber, 2=Second Scout/bomber design for the Navy from C=Curtiss aircraft

SNJ SN= Trainer, J=North American Aviation

JRC Personnel Transport built by Cessna

JRB Personnel/Cargo by Beech Aircraft

PBY Patrol Bomber built by Consolidated Aircraft
PB4Y fourth
SNV SN= Trainer, V=Vultee Aircraft (V later was used for Lockheed, replacing O)

PBJ Patrol Bomber, by North American Aviation...same as Army B-25.

Later, the Navy added A for attack. The AD-4 was an attack bomber built by Douglas Aircraft.

[MEdwards]

Thanks, Jim. That's the most interesting thing I'll learn today, I guarantee it. I never knew the pattern behind the Navy's model designations.