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F-18E/F and EA-18G

VFA-103guy

By VFA-103guy,
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HOLMES

HOLMES

Posted
Posted
Wow, never thought I would see Sparrows on a SH.

That is a beautiful shot. I just finished an E this morning and I'm seeing a hundred things I'll do differently the next time.

Super Hornet 88,Michel ... Those are just lovely photos...

Andrew THAT is SUPERB photo..thank you

HOLMES :rofl:

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Jinxter13

Jinxter13

Posted
Posted (edited)
do the letter tailings on navy planes mean what ship it's on or something?

The Tailcodes denote the CVW (Carrier Air Wing for ground pounders and land lubbers) ex: CVW-17 is AA. Don't worry you're in a good place to get educated; as the ARC Navy will be happy and more than glad to educate you, as they have me on USN facts about which I had no clue. The Air Wing may be aboard a different Carrier, but the codes don't change, IIRC some squadrons may change Air Wing assignments, and change tail codes, but the CVW codes are fixed.

Edited by Angels49
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phantom

phantom

Posted
Posted (edited)
do the letter tailings on navy planes mean what ship it's on or something?

To a point as Angles49 said. The photo above is of a VFA-31 F-18E Super Hornet.

The tail codes are "AJ" which represents CVW-8. All CVW-8 aircraft use "AJ" tail codes. There are some ten-11 carrier based based tail codes. Anything starting "A" is Atlantic fleet. Anything "N" is Pacific.

The second letter represents the exact CVW, AA, AB, AC,AG, AJ, NE, NF etc.

Many other navy aircraft also have tail codes but thats a "whole nother" story.

Now, using "AJ" as a example because they are the coolest, in each CVW you have a bunch of squadrons. Represented by a 3 digit number. In the case of CVW-8 (AJ) you get......

AJ 100 VFA-31 F-18E

AJ 200 VFA-213 F-18F

AJ 300 VFA-15 F-18C (I think they are still in C)

AJ 400 VFA-87 F-18A+

AJ 500 VAQ-141 F-18G

AJ 600 VAW-124 E-2C

AJ 700 which until recently was HS-3 in H-60s but that has changed.

Now, that takes care of the letters part. The CVW itself is as fluid as the squadrons. Squadrons move in and out of an assigned CVW as required. The CVW moves from ship to ship as navy needs dictate as well. For several years CVW-8 was assigned to CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt. CVN-71 (I think) is due for its overhaul, or will be soon. In any case George HW Bush is the newest carrier out there and for its maiden cruise will have CVW-8 on it.

Before CVW-71 CVW-8 was assigned to different carriers for full cruises and training purposes. Some ( but not all) recently include, Enterprise, Kennedy, Stennis, Independence and for many years in the 70s and 80s the Nimitz. Before that includes America, Shangri-La, Forrestal etc.

Edited by phantom
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Darren Roberts

Darren Roberts

Posted
Posted
To a point as Angles49 said. The photo above is of a VFA-31 F-18E Super Hornet.

The tail codes are "AJ" which represents CVW-8. All CVW-8 aircraft use "AJ" tail codes. There are some ten-11 carrier based based tail codes. Anything starting "A" is Atlantic fleet. Anything "N" is Pacific.

The second letter represents the exact CVW, AA, AB, AC,AG, AJ, NE, NF etc.

Many other navy aircraft also have tail codes but thats a "whole nother" story.

Now, using "AJ" as a example because they are the coolest, in each CVW you have a bunch of squadrons. Represented by a 3 digit number. In the case of CVW-8 (AJ) you get......

AJ 100 VFA-31 F-18E

AJ 200 VFA-213 F-18G

AJ 300 VFA-15 F-18C (I think they are still in C)

AJ 400 VFA-87 F-18A+

AJ 500 VAQ-141 F-18G

AJ 600 VAW-124 E-2C

AJ 700 which until recently was HS-3 in H-60s but that has changed.

Now, that takes care of the letters part. The CVW itself is as fluid as the squadrons. Squadrons move in and out of an assigned CVW as required. The CVW moves from ship to ship as navy needs dictate as well. For several years CVW-8 was assigned to CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt. CVN-71 (I think) is due for its overhaul, or will be soon. In any case George HW Bush is the newest carrier out there and for its maiden cruise will have CVW-8 on it.

Before CVW-71 CVW-8 was assigned to different carriers for full cruises and training purposes. Some ( but not all) recently include, Enterprise, Kennedy, Stennis, Independence and for many years in the 70s and 80s the Nimitz. Before that includes America, Shangri-La, Forrestal etc.

Very nice explanation. However, I didn't realize that the Black Lions were flying Growlers! :cheers:

Since I necessarily love this topic, I'll add a bit more. At one time, each numbered series of aircraft was also assigned a specific color. This lasted into the mid-70's before it started to disappear. It really went away with the advant of lo-vis schemes. The colors were as follows:

100 - red

200 - yellow

300 - light blue

400 - orange

500 - green

600-700 - black

Also, in the late 40's and early 50's, squadrons were numbered according to what airwing they were in. For instance, CVW-11 squadrons consisted of VF-111, VF-112, VF-113, VF-114, and VF-115. The first number (11) was the airwing and the second number (1-5) was each of the squadrons. If you look at a VF-114 Tomcat, you'll notice that they have orange trim,

but carried the 100 modex, which should be red. That's because at one time, they were the 4th squadron in CVW-11 with orange trim. They simply kept that color trim. One squadron that still has their traditional trim colors is VFA-143. They carry the 100 series, but have blue trim. That's because they used to be the 3rd squadron (blue) in CVW-14. I'll be quiet now!

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Sunliner

Sunliner

Posted
Posted

Darren...any idea why VFA-37 went 'red' a little while back? They had their CO jet in red markings instead of blue and had a slightly different patch as well. Seem to have gone back blue pretty quickly.

Very nice explanation. However, I didn't realize that the Black Lions were flying Growlers! :woot.gif:

Since I necessarily love this topic, I'll add a bit more. At one time, each numbered series of aircraft was also assigned a specific color. This lasted into the mid-70's before it started to disappear. It really went away with the advant of lo-vis schemes. The colors were as follows:

100 - red

200 - yellow

300 - light blue

400 - orange

500 - green

600-700 - black

.....

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Darren Roberts

Darren Roberts

Posted
Posted
Darren...any idea why VFA-37 went 'red' a little while back? They had their CO jet in red markings instead of blue and had a slightly different patch as well. Seem to have gone back blue pretty quickly.

That was the strangest thing. I've never figured out why they did that. It looked really odd. I'm glad they went back to blue.

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GreyGhost

GreyGhost

Posted
Posted
That was the strangest thing. I've never figured out why they did that. It looked really odd. I'm glad they went back to blue.

I don't know if this is the case but I thought it might have been because of a newly assigned CO ...

Gregg

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bushande

bushande

Posted
Posted (edited)

Great explanations.

I can follow giving Atlantic wings the letter "A" as fist part of the tailcodes like "A for Atlantic" but why the heck an "N" for pacific wings instead of an at least in my eyes more logical "P".

Does anyone have a clue what the "N" actually stands for? There's no N in Pacific. :soapbox:

Hope I'm not embarrassing myself now.

Edited by bushande
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phantom

phantom

Posted
Posted (edited)

I "think" A for Atlantic was a fortunate happenstance.

The right side of the country got the first half of the alphabet. A to M. The left side got the latter half, N to Z.

The CVW's were the big boys of naval designations so they got the first available letters. A and N.

Edited by phantom
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Boman

Boman

Posted
Posted
I "think" A for Atlantic was a fortunate happenstance.

The right side of the country got the first half of the alphabet. A to M. The left side got the latter half, N to Z.

The CVW's were the big boys of naval designations so they got the first available letters. A and N.

Can you imagine - something so unlogical as the Military splitting the east- from westcoast by such simple means, and in perfect logic :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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  • 2 weeks later...
nightmare77

nightmare77

Posted
Posted

DUDE.............................. We are going to need some new decals soon. That VFA-122 digital bird is a must and word on the strees is that the VAQ-138 color bird is coming soon and that its is going to be the $#!t!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, let start recruiting for these two. We need them BOTH. 1/72 please and Ill buy in a heartbeat!!!!

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