What happened to the F-24 - F-31 ?

[elmayerle]

Logical, or bollox?

Yes.

[Tophe]

Hmmm - so should my USN Hawk fighter be numbered F-24, or F-45 'cos its based on the T-45 Goshawk

Remember the Lockheed Model 322 Lightning fot the RAF, that was included in the USAF as P-322 while no Pursuit P- ever reached the number 100. The Bell P-400 Airacobra came this way too. Seriousness is sad, and officials may have fun playing "what-if we use this code? hehehe!"...
I just regret they have not played enough with the Mustangs/Twin-Mustangs.

[MartG]

Logical, or bollox?

Either way, its an area ripe for whiffery  

[garys]

I remember reading somewhere that the various MiGs flown out in Nevada were given F- numbers, but I don't remeber if this is true or some conspiracy stuff.

[XV107]

The latest rumour/conspiracy is that the YF-24 is the USAF designation for some Su-27s that appeared courtesy of a former Soviet Republic.

While it's possible that the F-24 to F-34 designators cover similar types obtained post Cold War (MiG-29? Su-22?), I guess that the F-35 designator is the result of someone senior failing to understand that the JSF prototype wasn't the XF-35, and it was too late to explain it to him before F-35 entered the public domain.

[Sentinel Chicken]

The Bell P-400 Airacobra came this way too.

P-400? I thought that was just a P-40 with a Zero on its tail?

I'll shut up now.

[anthonyp]

Logical, or bollox?

Yes.

Kosh?  Is that you?

YES!  Finally squeezed a Babylon 5 reference into the site!

[Ollie]

Ah yes, the US101.  Surely you mean the VH-71 Kestrel, don't you?



B)