Who chooses a name?

[Duchess_Driver]

Was fortunate enough to have a couple of hours spare this afternoon so I popped into Hendon.

The forward fuselage of XM717, "Lucky Lou" got me thinking, who gets the honour of naming the aircraft?

I'm led to believe it was usually the skipper (possibly from Enola Gay theory), but in a multi crew environment where there would be several skippers for a single frame who calls the tune?

Not sure Mrs Duchess would be overly impressed if I'd arrived home one evening having christened my chariot "Lusty Linda"!

[Pontius Navigator]

Success, interesting question.

I know McRoberts' Reply was a special case.

There was a suggestion for naming the Varsities at Nav School and my suggestion for Cambridge colleges was 'best' but nothing came of it.

In the 60s, with centralized servicing I think it more or less died out with none of the Vulcans named. The VC10s were different and probably named by the great and the good.

Nimrods in the 70s were also anonymous. Now I think the Shacks on 8 were named on a particular theme but whether it was aircrew or ground crew I don't know. I think it was the ground crew as they owned the aircraft and only loaned it to us.

[TheWizard]

Best not take her on a day trip to Bruntingthorpe then!!

http://youtu.be/1XImUFU949w

[thing]

The E3D fleet are named after the seven dwarfs; there being seven of the type originally. Don't know who came up with that idea though.

When 8 had Shacks they were named after characters from the Magic Roundabout.

Not sure Mrs Duchess would be overly impressed if I'd arrived home one evening having christened my chariot "Lusty Linda"!

Especially if her name isn't Linda...

[Duchess_Driver]

Damned autocorrect..... I meant Lindy!

[Vendee]

In GW1 (certainly in Bahrain) it was the groundcrew who picked the names. We used the sqn ident letter from the fin and turned it into a girls name. E became Emma, H became Helen etc. For some reason G became Granny. We painted the nose art and I was convinced we were going to be told to remove it, given our location, but they let it stay.

[brakedwell]

The RAF Britannias were named after Stars. I suspect a cabal of navigators were involved

[MAINJAFAD]

A very close relative worked on Dhahran's GR1's during GWI, Their Tornadoes were named after the characters out of Black Adder with no nose art other than the name in black text and mission markings (The SEngO at the time had no sense of humour and threatened to charge anybody who painted nose art on the aircraft of any kind bar what I mentioned above (from what I was told in a bluey at the time)). Tabuk's GR1's still had their Squadron and Aircraft codes on the tail, thus the aircraft tended to have a double barreled name based on the two letters.

[MAINJAFAD]

Enola Gay theory

44-86292 wasn't Paul Tibbets aircraft, but that normally flown Captain Robert Lewis (who was the co-pilot on the Aug 6th mission). Tibbets named it on the day before the raid which didn't impress Lewis very much.

As regards the 55 Sqn Victors in GW1, I do believe they were named after the wife of the aircraft's Crew Chief at the time.

[thing]

10's 10s were named after VC winners. I remember flying in David Lord VC to Decci.

[langleybaston]

As regards the 55 Sqn Victors in GW1, I do believe they were named after the wife of the aircraft's Crew Chief at the time.

May we assume the crew chief was a Muslim, then?

[Willard Whyte]

The E3D fleet are named after the seven dwarfs; there being seven of the type originally. Don't know who came up with that idea though.

I always used to wonder why the staish wasn't reffered to as Snow White.

Although given the antics of Mr Hayes that would probably result in the SIB's arrival in fairly short order.

[kaitakbowler]

8 Sqn Shacks were named after characters in the "The Magic Roundabout" IIRC.

Once spent an afternoon drinking in the company of "Jimmy" Edwards DFC, he talked fondly of his memories of David Lord VC.

PM

[Davef68]

IIRC Transport Command 'strategic' aircraft were the only ones given 'official' names - in addition to the VC10 and Brittania ones, the Shorts Belfast fleet were named after classical heroes, and the Comet 2s were given constellation names. (Can't remember if the Comet 4s had names, nor Beverleys or Argosies)

[brakedwell]

(Can't remember if the Comet 4s had names, nor Beverleys or Argosies)

Regarding Argosies - Whistling and Wheelbarrow come to mind !

[MAINJAFAD]

May we assume the crew chief was a Muslim, then?

I very much doubt it. The nose art of the Victors in GW1 had the name of the Crew Chief's wife or girlfriend as noted on this link

A sorry looking Victor :( ? FighterControl ? Home to the Military Aviation Enthusiast (http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=287&p=436798)

[Pontius Navigator]

Mainjafad, I fear you fell into LB's apostrophe trap.

[MAINJAFAD]

Humm, suspected a bit of sarcasm on Langley's post :E, PN, but it did make me go digging for the link to confirm what I thought.

[BEagle]

Mercifully, during GW1 our VC10Ks escaped being painted with graffitti by amateurs with rattle-cans. Although at Muharraq, the rather inappropriate logo "The Empire Strikes Back" was applied to some, together with a large 'BP' emblem, but at least a professional was hired to do the work.

I don't know why there was such enthusiasm for so-called 'nose art' on RAF aircraft. To be honest, most of it was pretty dire and not a patch on the art applied by the Americans to their aircraft.

[Vendee]

Mercifully, during GW1 our VC10Ks escaped being painted with graffitti by amateurs with rattle-cans. Although at Muharraq, the rather inappropriate logo "The Empire Strikes Back" was applied to some, together with a large 'BP' emblem, but at least a professional was hired to do the work.

I don't know why there was such enthusiasm for so-called 'nose art' on RAF aircraft. To be honest, most of it was pretty dire and not a patch on the art applied by the Americans to their aircraft.But didn't the Victors replace your your VC10's at Muharraq before it actually kicked off?

Rattle cans? If only. The Tornado stuff was hand painted using about four basic colours and I admit, it was never going to win the turner prize. I thought the Victor and Bucc nose art was much higher quality.

[scorpion63]

One Vulcan at Cottesmore was named Mayflower or Mayfly III which was" writ large" on the side of the nose 1967/68 can't remember the actual date or why but it had done a long range nav ex to the north pole I believe. It was all a very long time ago but I do remember alcohol was taken on it's return!!

[langleybaston]

Yes, the Muslim reference was sarcasm, made I larf at the time but apologies are in order.

As an aside, the predicted 'movements for tomorrow' issued by ATC/Ops at RAF Nicosia were always known as Mayflies, whereas those at Gatwick were known as 'Runners and Riders' because they included the captains' names. Surely not unique?

[nimbev]

(Can't remember if the Comet 4s had names, nor Beverleys or Argosies) Beverleys did not have names as such ... they were just frequently verbally abused. I do remember a certain senior captain of Kiwi extraction remarking when he saw our first sand camouflaged beast 'Christ, it looks like a f*cking rusty destroyer'

[Sloppy Link]

XZ666 Lynx AH1 and then after the mid-life upgrade AH7. Damien for obvious reasons. Generally the AAC don't give their aircraft names but whoever allocated the call sign Ugly to the Apache fleet in Afghanistan was a genius.