Message posted by Andreas Parsch on January 08, 2004 at 23:49:29 PST:

> Question: Does the designation in the 110-117 range indicate a strike role'?.

Not really.

The numbers F-110 (-> F-4) and F-111 were regular pre-1962 USAF fighter designations. It's a coincidence (and it wasn't initially planned to be so) that the F-111 was essentially a pure strike aircraft. And the F-4 was the USAF's first true multi-role fighter and by no means a pure air-to-mud aircraft.

All the other (Y)F-11x designations were used for whatever undisclosed aircraft the USAF was flying. These were definitely not limited to strike aircraft. So the aircraft's number doesn't indicate its role in any way. In fact, it has also been indicated (not be reliable sources, though) that the "YF" prefix (meaning "prototype fighter" in standard designations) was applied to _any_ type of aircraft and not limited to fighter(-bomber)s.

Andreas

In Reply to: Re: Curiouser and curiouser... posted by will on January 08, 2004 at 21:28:48 PST:

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