【U. S. air power fighter designations】
—— Vol. 1 The Eve of Eves
There seems to be some confusion about the designations of American fighter planes. Here's a summary I put together which I hope will clear up some of that confusion. I hope that you have as much fun reading this as I had in writing it. Enjoy!!!
Up until 1920, there was no unified designation scheme for American combat aircraft. Before that time, aircraft had always served under their original manufacturer's designation (e. g. SPAD XIII, DH-4, S.E.5, etc). In 1920, it was decided that some sort of unified designation scheme was needed for American combat planes. In that year, the Army Air Service adopted an official designation scheme for all newly-procured aircraft. Henceforth, all Army aircraft were to be subdivided into 15 basic categories, seven of which were pursuit-type categories:
PA Pursuit, Air-Cooled
PG Pursuit, Ground Attack
PN Pursuit, Night
PS Pursuit, Special Alert
PW Pursuit, Water-Cooled
R Racer
TP Pursuit, Two-Seat
(Yes, that's right, R for Racer; the Army raced planes back in those days!). The category letters were followed by a chronological number. This number gave the sequence in which an aircraft in a given category was ordered into service. The chronological number was often (but not always) followed by a letter which designated minor modifications of that particular aircraft type in the order in which they were performed. For example, the Boeing PW-9C was the ninth basic type of pursuit aircraft powered by a water-cooled engine to be ordered by the Army Air Service. The letter "C" indicates the third modification of the basic PW-9 design.
(to be continued..)
（網圖侵删）[兔子]
