Was the Cessna T-37 officially the Tweet?

[stepwilk]

Yes, I know that's the standard USAF name for that ubiquitous trainer, and I know it's because of the 6,000-pound-dogwhistle screech the engine air intakes made, but I'm curious (actually for an article I'm writing for Aviation History on the occasion of the airplane's retirement):

Does anybody know if this airplane was officially named Tweet when it went into service, or is this an unofficial name that gradually became its name of record, in a sense like the way the A-10 became the Warthog and nobody on earth calls it the "Thunderbolt II"?

[Brian Abraham]

The official name would seem to be the "Tweet", at least in 2004. When it became so ???. See page 60 at http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/412015l.pdf

The official list above still refers to the A-10 as the "Thunderbolt II".

Wiki has "The intake of air into its small turbojets emitted a high-pitched shriek that led some to describe the trainer as a "Screaming Mimi", and it was referred to as the "6,000 pound dog whistle" or "Converter" (converts fuel and air into noise and smoke). The piercing whistle quickly gave the T-37 its name: "Tweety Bird", or just "Tweet". The Air Force spent a lot of time and money sound-proofing buildings at bases where the T-37 was stationed"

[skytrain10]

I am not entirely convinced that Tweet (or Tweety Bird) is an official name. The dtic document referred to calls it the Popular Name. Early references to the aircraft have always referred to it as the Cessna T-37. Later publications and documents refer to it as the T-37 Tweet or Tweety Bird. Much the same goes for the F-111. The name Aardvark has only appeared in comparitively recent times.

[Brian Abraham]

skytrain, if you reread the document you will see that it says "Approved Popular Names". To me that means official. The name Aardvark was only officially assigned to the aircraft at a ceremony marking the F-111's USAF retirement, on 27 July 1996. The aircraft had long been referred to by that name however.