thedrifter
05-17-06, 08:04 AM
Posted on Wed, May. 17, 2006
Is it Phoenix? Maybe a Lynx?
Ideas for the F-35s name are ample, but for now it's top secret
By DAVE MONTGOMERY
STAR-TELEGRAM WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Will it be a soaring bird of prey, a galloping beast or a force of nature, like generations of previous warplanes bearing names such as Eagle, Mustang or Lightning?
Or will it convey the noble tenets of democracy with a name like Liberty or Freedom? Or even human emotion, such as Fury?
Five years after the Pentagon embarked on the joint strike fighter program, the Lockheed Martin F-35 is just weeks away from getting a name, and the final recommendations are as closely guarded as plans for an Air Force bombing strike.
Overseeing the naming process is Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff who grew up in Grand Prairie.
After soliciting recommendations from the military services and eight partner nations helping develop the plane, top Air Force officials have narrowed the list to a handful of finalists and are moving toward a decision by the end of June, Moseley's spokesman said Saturday.
"We're down to a few," said Maj. Glen Roberts. "We're in the finals."
Now projected to cost $276 billion, the joint strike fighter is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program and is being developed in three different versions -- for the Air Force, Navy and Marines -- as well as overseas customers.
The Pentagon wants to name the plane before the first developmental F-35 - the AA1 -- makes its inaugural flight this fall near Lockheed Martin's plant in west Fort Worth. The Fort Worth facility will be the assembly point for thousands of F-35s envisioned over the next several decades.
Roberts said the recommendations are so closely guarded that even he doesn't know the names. "They're keeping that a very, very close hold," he said.
As a flying killing machine that will soar at up to 1,100 mph, the F-35 is a prime candidate for a name that says power and intimidation.
The final Pentagon choice could also perpetuate the "joint" theme reflecting the multiservice and international partnership. Separate names for each of the services -- and possibly another for Britain's F-35s -- are yet another possibility.
Even though the official selection is confined to an inner circle within the Pentagon, the F-35 name game has drawn hundreds of unofficial suggestions from military enthusiasts, bloggers, fighter jocks and even schoolchildren.
John Kent, a spokesman at Lockheed Martin Aero- nautics, said the company has received more than 100 e-mailed suggestions from the public. The choices, he said, include "every bird imaginable and probably a few birds you've never heard of."
The suggestions include Lynx, Storm, Silhouette, Mantis, Defender, Punisher, Hunter and Sting Ray. One long shot is Shrike, a vicious bird of prey known as the "butcher bird" because of its habit of impaling prey on thorns or barbed-wire fences while it feeds.
F-16.net, a Web site developed by admirers of Lockheed Martin's venerable Fighting Falcon, features a name-that-plane poll soliciting an outpouring of suggestions ranging from obscure to predictable.
The top choice Tuesday, with 21 percent, was Phoenix, a mythical bird that arises from its own ashes.
Other double-digit contenders included Kestrel, a little-known reddish-gray European falcon, and Diamondback, a rattlesnake.
Razorback placed a respectable fourth out of 10, despite a writer's observa- tion that "pigs don't fly so good."
One authoritative recommendation comes from Lt. Col. Art "Turbo" Tomassetti, a Marine pilot who flew the X-35, the prototype for the future F-35, during competitive tests in 2001.
After the flights, Tomassetti said last week, he and a half-dozen pilots and engineers gathered "over a couple of pints" to mull over a name.
"We went through a whole list," he recalled. "It had to be something that all the services could relate to." The consensus, he said, was Fury, with adaptations for each of the services -- Sky Fury for the Air Force, Sea Fury for the Navy and Storm Fury for the Marines because, he said, "the Marines storm the beaches."
As the leader of the F-35 manufacturing team, Lockheed Martin presumably will have a keen paternal interest in the name, but it is not taking an active role in making suggestions, Kent said.
"I don't think Lockheed really has a position on it," he said. "I've not heard of any push here to name it anything in particular."
Fighter planes have borne a vast array of identities since the Army bought its first warplane in 1908.
Some, like the P-38 Lightning or P-51 Mustang, became legends. Others, like the Brewster Buffalo, were imminently forgettable.
And some names just didn't stick. Lockheed Martin's F-22 started out as Lightning II, and then SuperStar, before it became the Raptor, according to aerospaceweb.org. For the F-16, many pilots prefer Viper over Fighting Falcon.
Similarly, the A-10 attack plane rolled off assembly lines as the Thunderbolt II, but to generations of pilots it will always be known as something a bit more down-to-earth -- the Warthog.
Dave Montgomery, (202) 383-6016 dmontgomery@krwashington.com
Ellie
Is it Phoenix? Maybe a Lynx?
Ideas for the F-35s name are ample, but for now it's top secret
By DAVE MONTGOMERY
STAR-TELEGRAM WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Will it be a soaring bird of prey, a galloping beast or a force of nature, like generations of previous warplanes bearing names such as Eagle, Mustang or Lightning?
Or will it convey the noble tenets of democracy with a name like Liberty or Freedom? Or even human emotion, such as Fury?
Five years after the Pentagon embarked on the joint strike fighter program, the Lockheed Martin F-35 is just weeks away from getting a name, and the final recommendations are as closely guarded as plans for an Air Force bombing strike.
Overseeing the naming process is Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff who grew up in Grand Prairie.
After soliciting recommendations from the military services and eight partner nations helping develop the plane, top Air Force officials have narrowed the list to a handful of finalists and are moving toward a decision by the end of June, Moseley's spokesman said Saturday.
"We're down to a few," said Maj. Glen Roberts. "We're in the finals."
Now projected to cost $276 billion, the joint strike fighter is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program and is being developed in three different versions -- for the Air Force, Navy and Marines -- as well as overseas customers.
The Pentagon wants to name the plane before the first developmental F-35 - the AA1 -- makes its inaugural flight this fall near Lockheed Martin's plant in west Fort Worth. The Fort Worth facility will be the assembly point for thousands of F-35s envisioned over the next several decades.
Roberts said the recommendations are so closely guarded that even he doesn't know the names. "They're keeping that a very, very close hold," he said.
As a flying killing machine that will soar at up to 1,100 mph, the F-35 is a prime candidate for a name that says power and intimidation.
The final Pentagon choice could also perpetuate the "joint" theme reflecting the multiservice and international partnership. Separate names for each of the services -- and possibly another for Britain's F-35s -- are yet another possibility.
Even though the official selection is confined to an inner circle within the Pentagon, the F-35 name game has drawn hundreds of unofficial suggestions from military enthusiasts, bloggers, fighter jocks and even schoolchildren.
John Kent, a spokesman at Lockheed Martin Aero- nautics, said the company has received more than 100 e-mailed suggestions from the public. The choices, he said, include "every bird imaginable and probably a few birds you've never heard of."
The suggestions include Lynx, Storm, Silhouette, Mantis, Defender, Punisher, Hunter and Sting Ray. One long shot is Shrike, a vicious bird of prey known as the "butcher bird" because of its habit of impaling prey on thorns or barbed-wire fences while it feeds.
F-16.net, a Web site developed by admirers of Lockheed Martin's venerable Fighting Falcon, features a name-that-plane poll soliciting an outpouring of suggestions ranging from obscure to predictable.
The top choice Tuesday, with 21 percent, was Phoenix, a mythical bird that arises from its own ashes.
Other double-digit contenders included Kestrel, a little-known reddish-gray European falcon, and Diamondback, a rattlesnake.
Razorback placed a respectable fourth out of 10, despite a writer's observa- tion that "pigs don't fly so good."
One authoritative recommendation comes from Lt. Col. Art "Turbo" Tomassetti, a Marine pilot who flew the X-35, the prototype for the future F-35, during competitive tests in 2001.
After the flights, Tomassetti said last week, he and a half-dozen pilots and engineers gathered "over a couple of pints" to mull over a name.
"We went through a whole list," he recalled. "It had to be something that all the services could relate to." The consensus, he said, was Fury, with adaptations for each of the services -- Sky Fury for the Air Force, Sea Fury for the Navy and Storm Fury for the Marines because, he said, "the Marines storm the beaches."
As the leader of the F-35 manufacturing team, Lockheed Martin presumably will have a keen paternal interest in the name, but it is not taking an active role in making suggestions, Kent said.
"I don't think Lockheed really has a position on it," he said. "I've not heard of any push here to name it anything in particular."
Fighter planes have borne a vast array of identities since the Army bought its first warplane in 1908.
Some, like the P-38 Lightning or P-51 Mustang, became legends. Others, like the Brewster Buffalo, were imminently forgettable.
And some names just didn't stick. Lockheed Martin's F-22 started out as Lightning II, and then SuperStar, before it became the Raptor, according to aerospaceweb.org. For the F-16, many pilots prefer Viper over Fighting Falcon.
Similarly, the A-10 attack plane rolled off assembly lines as the Thunderbolt II, but to generations of pilots it will always be known as something a bit more down-to-earth -- the Warthog.
Dave Montgomery, (202) 383-6016 dmontgomery@krwashington.com
Ellie