Guide to Airplane Designations
About the author
How the designation system works
- Attack Aircraft
- Used for attacks
- Bomber
- Used for bombing
- Cargo Aircraft
- Used for transporting large amounts of supplies or people
- Electronically equipped
- Aircraft equipped with electronic warfare capabilities
- Fighter Aircraft
- Aircraft used for dogfighting, bombing, or attack runs
- Grounded
- Aircraft that are no longer airworthy. Either because they are obsolete, too expensive, or dangerous.
- Helicopter
- Designation assigned to helicopters
- Tanker
- Aircraft that transport liquids or fuel, the reason that "K" was chosen was because it stands for "Kerosene" otherwise known as jet fuel.
- Laser Equipped
- Aircraft that are equipped with laser guiding systems. An odd designaton, as it is only really used for one plane. The "L" designation is very rarely used, even in planes that are laser equipped.
- Observation
- Aircraft that observe from above to look out for threats
- Patrol/Persuit
- Aircraft that fly around looking for threats/Aircraft that pursue
- Unmanned
- Aircraft that don't have a pilot, UAVs
- Reconassaince
- Aircraft that collect information, spyplanes
- Anti-submarine, Surveillance
- Aircraft that are either designed to destroy submarines, or survey large areas from high up above
- Trainer
- Aircrafts used for training new pilots
- Utility
- Aircrafts used for general purposes, like transport, but can be used when specialized aircraft aren't available
- VTOL
- Vertical Take off and Landing, jets that can hover like helicopters to take off
- Weather reconassaince
- Aircrafts used for detecting weather occurances
- Special Research
- Aircrafts designed to see what's possible, push the boundaries
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- Planning/Lighter than air
- Aircrafts that are in the process of planning/aircraft that float with air less dense than the atmosphere, like blimps or hot air balloons
