On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 10:35:24 -0800, charlie b
wrote:

The Brits are great at names that convey the thing they name
Jaguar
Triumph
Matchless
Nomad
Panther Cub
(ok so the Royal Enfield was a stretch)

Lucas Electrics...the reason for warm beer in the UK.

And their warships sound like warships
HMS Invinceable
HMS Indominable
HMS Vindicator
HMS Get the **** Out of MY Ocean
(got carried away - sorry.)

And you forgot the HMS Dreadnought, the first all big gun battleship,
and whose name has devolved to generically mean all capital ships.

Ours
Indiana

The Navy had naming conventions for a long time that drove these
things. Battleships were named after states. You can be sure there was
significant lobbying for a name from each delegation whenever a new
battleship was laid down. Cruisers were named after cities (probably
same thing). Submarines were named after sea creatures. Aircraft
carriers were often named for battles, although the first was named
for an aviation pioneer, and the Enterprise (CV6) was one of a long
line of naval ships so named..

The first Indiana (BB-1) was the first numbered US battleship. The
second one (BB-58) served in WWII.

Forrestal

First Secretary of Defense? Doesn't he deserve something?

Carl Vincent (?)

Carl Vinson. Probably the most influential Senator for DoD
appropriations in history. He deserves a carrier named after him more
than a couple of presidents I know.

Not all of the Royal Navy ships' names were so intimidating. The HMS
Rodney comes immediately to mind, as does Ark Royal.

Their fighter planes
Spitfire
Harrier

Ours
P-38
B-29

Come on. Be fair. Do apples to apples. If you insist on calling the
Lightning (pretty good name, I think) a P-38, then you have to refer
to the Spitfire as the Supermarine Type 300 MK (whatever).

And the B-29 was a SuperFortress. I can't imagine a less namby-pamby
name than that.

The Hawker-Siddley AV8A? That's the equivalent name for the Harrier.
By the way, do you know what Harrier pilots are called? AV8ers.


- -
LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net