What does the F in F-22 and other planes mean? Or P, as in P-51?

Question

As in the F22 Raptor and the C5 Starlifter, what does the letter stand for? 10 points for whoever knows.

Answer 1

A -Attack
B - Bomber
C - Cargo
D -
E - Electronic/Early warning
F - Fighter
G -
H- Helicopter
I -
J -
K -Tanker/refuel-er
L -
M -
N -
O - Observation
P- Pursuit
Q - Usually a drone
R - Reconnaissance
S - Surveillance
T - Trainer
U - unmanned/surveillance? (U-2)
V - Vertical take off
W -
X - experimental
Y - Also experiment? (YF-22)
Z -

Answer 2

While the P-51 (Mustang) was a fantastic aircraft, the F-6 (Hellcat) outperformed and outgunned the P-51 in every aspect. It was faster, more maneuverable had better weapons and had better armor. With comparable quality pilots, the F-6 would run circles around the P-51. The main reason for that is because the F-6 was newer and the Navy/Army learned a lot from the Mustang and incorporated those improvements with the Hellcat.

Answer 3

C is Cargo
B is Bomber
A is Attack
T is Trainer
P is Pursuit (old term)
F is Fighter
FB is Fighter Bomber
F/A is Fighter/Attack
CH is Cargo Helicopter
AH is attack Helicopter
X is Experimental
Y or YP is for prototypes
OH is Observation Helicopter
OV is Observation (sometimes just "O")
KC is refueling tanker
SR is Surveillance Reconaissance (also used U and TR)
E is Electronic Warfare
EH, RH and HH are used for special role helicopters.

That's all I can think of right now.

Answer 4

It is used to designate the aircrafts primary uses. As other have mention:

F= Fighter
C= cargo
B=Bomber

There are other sub/pre designations as well. For example, the F-15. There is an EF-15. The primary use is that it can detect the source of surface to air missle radar. So, one flys ahead. The SAM lock on to it. The trailing F-15 finds the location of the SAM launcher and destroys it.

Answer 5

A=attack bomber (small, carries bombs under the wings)
B=bomber, carries lots of bombs inside it.
C=Cargo, carries supplies and people
E= Electronic warfare eye-in-the-sky AWACS
EA=Electronc warfare attack (jammer/scrambler)
ES=Electronic warfare modified sub hunter
F=fighter many different kinds: interceptor, strike, close support
FA=fighter attack multi-role fighter or attack bomber
EFA= Adds jammer to the mix.
H=helicopter
KA= Attack aircraft that can provide midair refueling
O=Observer-spotter
P= patrol - submarine hunter, primarily
RA, RF=reconnaisance (camera) plane, the fighers fly higher and faster than the attack ones
S= Submarine hunter
T=trainer
TA=trainer attack
TF=trainer fighter
US= utility, (light cargo, mail) modified from previous job
X= Experimental
YA or YF= Experimental test modifcation of an already produced aircraft.
Z= for science fiction use only?

Some get letters tacked on for different countries, such as CFA-18s for Canada, HA-7E for Greece.

I'm sure I missed some somewhere.

Answer 6

Just to add to all the comments:
P was "pursuit", which yes did change in the late 40's to F for fighter. The early jets like the P59 and P80, were changed, well the P80 Shooting Star was in service long enough to be changed to F80, but rarely referred to that way. Conversely, the P51 was also used in Korea, but was changed to the F51, but hardly anyone ever calls it that, but will see it referenced that way sometimes in books about the Korean War. Others i can think of:
B is a bomber
T is a trainer, always, but in WW2 there were variations on this. For example, a Ryan PT22, the PT stands for Primary Trainer, they also had a confusing one called a "BT" such as the Vultee BT13 "Valiant", with the BT standing for Basic Trainer. They also had "AT" aircraft, for "Advanced Trainer", these were usually faster twin engined planes like the Beech AT11 "Kansan", which mainly was used for bombardier and navigator training and twin-engine transition training.
Another category was "L" for liaison aircraft, which were used for troop and target spotting, and flying guys around to places they had to get to, the most famous one was probably the L4 Grasshopper, which was nothing but a damn Piper J3 Cub painted olive drab. Before this they used an "O" for Observation, same job as an "L" aircraft.
Another category was the "A" for Attack, such as the A20 Havoc and A26 Invader. It gets very confusing as to what constitutes an "Attack" aircraft and what was just a light bomber. The roles were very similar. The A26 was actually redesignated the B26 in 1948, same plane!
Another is the U for "Utility". These were mainly used to haul people around from place to place, but smaller than a normal "C" (Cargo) aircraft. The "U" you will see on many off types of aircraft. In WW2, the UC43 was a Beech Staggerwing, and you also saw this on the U2 spyplane, which had something to do with it being a CIA project, but you'll see it on something like a Beech Kingair turboprop that say a General would get flown around in.
Early Helicopters were given an "R" designation for "Rotorcraft", later they used "H" on copters.
A glider, like they used on D Day for example, used a "G". The most famous of these being the Waco CG4 "Hadrian", C for cargo and G for glider. The Air Force used the designator "OA" for it's Catalinas (OA10) I am assuming for "Observation Amphibian", although the "A" may have stood for "Attack" as it was an armed aircraft, I'm fuzzy on which that meant.
a "VC" aircraft was used specifically for Presidential transport.
A "KC" aircraft is a inflight refueller made from a cargo plane, and a "KB" is a inflight refueller made from a bomber.
an "RC" aircraft is a radar equipped aircraft (as a patrol sentry or other uses) and made from a cargo aircraft.
an "EC" aircraft is an electronic countermeasure aircraft and was made from a cargo aircraft.
An "EB" aircraft was used also for electronic countermeasures, but was made from a bomber platform.
An RF aircraft is a recon aircraft made from a fighter, and an RB is a recon aircraft made from a bomber.
An "H" aircraft is a rescue aircraft, these are combined with other letters such as HU for one made from a utility aircraft, or HH for one that is a helicopter.
An "SR" aircraft, like the SR71, stands for strategic recon, that means it's going like halfway around the world to spy on people. Nowadays i think they use satellites.
Whew I'm sure there's more. Can I quit now??

Answer 7

Fighter

Answer 8

In this case, "F" stands for fighter and "P" stands for pursuit. Other designations include "A" for attack, "B" for bomber, "T" for trainer, "C" for cargo. These prefixes are generally used by military aircraft. The # 51 after "P" indicates the series number ie; the 51st basic fighter design. Hope this helps

Answer 9

F means Fighter, B means Bomber, P means Pursuit and EX means Experimental

Answer 10

the P in WW2 era designation was Pursuit -like the modern F fighter.

f fighter
C cargo
A attack
CH cargo helicopter
AH attack helicopter
F/A fighter/attack
B bomber