F-35B or Sea Lightning?
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F-35B or Sea Lightning?
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I bet it will get called a myriad of names and none will be polite.
I wonder what the differences between the RAF airframes and the RN ones will be. I wonder if they will be different fleets. I wonder if their names will suddenly change depending on who is flying them. Or will they all be called Sea Lightning?
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As best as I can tell, only fixed wing aircraft with a proper arrestor hook or other major modification (SHar) were prefixed 'Sea' in Royal Navy service, with notable exceptions of Gannet, Buccaneer etc which had naval connotations in the name. There is no precedent for the F-35B Lightning II to be a 'Sea' Lightning, and given that the majority of the type will be light blue it would be silly to have that variation.
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Of course it should be called the Sea Lightning an the only reason why the Junior Service need get involved is to wash and prep the things ready for their RN betters.
Hopefully we will call it the Lightning FGR mk1. None of this US F-35 nonsense, and there is no tradition of using a 'II' designator when we re-use a name (in the case of the UK the Lightning would be III anyway) - e.g. Tornado, Typhoon, Fury, Tutor etc
In the same way the MFTS T-6s should be Harvard Tmk1.
In the same way the MFTS T-6s should be Harvard Tmk1.
To try to tie several threads together, as we are having a cull of Senior Officers and the F35 is mainly going to be flown by the RAF, we could put a Group Captain in charge of the new RAF Queen Elizabeth Carriers with a Navy chap overseeing the Naval side then the name of the new aircraft would be much easier as the word Sea would not fit in, seems like a win win all round.
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we could put a Group Captain in charge of the new RAF Queen Elizabeth Carriers
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
As best as I can tell, only fixed wing aircraft with a proper arrestor hook or other major modification (SHar) were prefixed 'Sea' in Royal Navy service, with notable exceptions of Gannet, Buccaneer etc which had naval connotations in the name. There is no precedent for the F-35B Lightning II to be a 'Sea' Lightning, and given that the majority of the type will be light blue it would be silly to have that variation.
I wonder if fewer were prefixed Sea than not.
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Hopefully we will call it the Lightning FGR mk1. None of this US F-35 nonsense, and there is no tradition of using a 'II' designator when we re-use a name (in the case of the UK the Lightning would be III anyway) - e.g. Tornado, Typhoon, Fury, Tutor etc
Anyhoo, the Phantom was officially the Phantom II. Even the PP Pedants rarely insist upon the use of 'II', thus it doesn't matter whether it's called Lightning II since the II won't get used (except by the PPP).
Furthermore, only Dave-C should be the Sea Dave, in my never humble opinion.
Last edited by Willard Whyte; 5th Feb 2015 at 15:03.
