what were the u.s military aircraft designations in WW II i.e p was pursut?

Answer 1

It's a tad complicated the navy had there system and the air force theirs. in the air force P=pursuit, B=bomber, F=recon,L=liaison, C=cargo,A=attack, T=trainer. The navy was complicated F=fighter, B=bomber, P=patrol,T=torpedo bomber,S=scout, R=cargo. and to make it more messy the navy gave each manufacturer a letter designation. An example PBY CATALINA P= patrol B=bomber Y=consolidated thus each plane had the function and manufacturer in each planes designation. Y=consolidated, B=Douglas, F=Grumman, M=general motors , Etc Etc

Answer 2

B was for bomber, p for pursuit, f for fighter, a for attack. That's the down and dirty, although there were many aircraft that didn't have this type of designation.

For instance:
Grumman TBA (also TBF, M) Avenger.
The TB stood for Bomber, Torpedo, and the thrid letter would have been a model number

SBD Dauntless
Bomber, Dive, Ship-borne (carrier)

PBY Catalina
Patrol, flying boat

There were some aircraft that had multiple designations. For instance, the B-26 Marauder was a medium bomber, but some were designated A-26 Invaders, and equipped as low level interdictors, with cannons and rockets, as opposed to a traditional setup with the bomb sight and such. The B-26 would have carried a crew of five, while the A-26 carried a crew of three.