INTRODUCTION ------------ These documents contains lists of the military aircraft built by several nations, including the United States, Britain, Germany, Russia and the Soviet Union. The files are: us_mil.txt List of aircraft that have U.S. military designations, and a few US-built military aircraft that did not have them; with appendix: U.S.A. military designation systems for aircraft. sov_mil.txt List of military aircraft built or used in the USSR or Russia. With two appendices: The pre-WWII soviet designation system, and a list of NATO codes for aircraft and equipment. ger_mil.txt List of military aircraft built or used in Germany. fr_mil.txt List of military aircraft built or used in France. jap_mil.txt List of military aircraft built or used in Japan, with three appendices: Allied codes for WWII Japanese aircraft; translations of Japanese names for aircraft; and the designation systems used by the Japanese during WWII. br_mil.txt List of military aircraft built or used in Britain. ital_mil.txt List of military aircraft built or used in Italy. bel_mil.txt List of military aircraft built or used in Belgium. oth_mil.txt List of military aircraft built or used by other nations, not listed above. codes.txt List of acronyms and codenames, also including some names of units; also carriers and seaplane tenders. varia.txt A number of factoids; includes several order of battles, a list of bomb and armament types, a list of carrier types, a list of ship losses, nicknames of aircraft, and German secret weapons of WWII. Information in this file is not systematic and incomplete. museum.txt Some aircraft museums, with (often very incomplete) lists of their collections. There are several purposes for such files. Often questions are raised by discussion: what the name of an aircraft was, what its merits were, how many were built, and other, similar, questions. This lists provide an answer to some of these, but not to all of them. The fact that such a discussion is present already indicates, however, that the aircraft type is fairly well known. But most of this information would be easily found in books, and would be more extensive. I tried to include also the unknown, the numerous prototypes that remained unique, the aircraft that performed minor roles, the weird prototypes. Completeness is the goal, but of course this is difficult to achieve. Any additions are welcome. It is not always clear whether or not to include an aircraft in a list. The matter is of course easy enough if a fighter of bomber that was built and flown is concerned. But there are also numerous transport and liaison aircraft that were not designed for the military role, experimental aircraft built for government agencies, aircraft that were designed but never built, artist's drawings, and even aircraft that only 'existed' in the brains of propaganda officials or mistaken intelligence officers. Sometimes it is not very clear in which list an aircraft should be; e.g. Fokker built aircraft in the Netherlands, Germany and the USA. Arbitrary choices are inevitable. The information is, in the ideal case, present in records of the following format: Lancaster, Avro Most used British heavy bomber of WWII, Lancasters flew 156000 missions. Rectangular fuselage, mid-set wing and twin tail fins and rudders. A development of the Manchester. The Lancaster was able to carry very heavy bombs and bulky 'special' weapons; with modifications to the bomb-bay even 10.000kg bombs were carried. 7378 built. Type: Lancaster Mk. I Function: bomber Year: 1942 Crew: 7 Engines: 4 * 1280hp R.R. Merlin XX Speed: 460km/h Ceiling: 7470m Range: 4800km Armament: 10*mg7.7mm b9980kg Some comment on this is appropiate. The brief description tries to indicate the importance and history of the aircraft, as far as possible and known. If the type was a development of another, I try to indicate this. The number of aircraft built is given if available. Very often a description of the layout of the aircraft is given. The text is followed by a data record. First the subtype is indicated to which the numbers are applicable; here this is the 'Lancaster Mk.I'. Most manufacturers and air forces are sensible enough to assign different designations to different subtypes, but this is not always the case. The year given is the year of service introduction of the given subtype, not that of first flight, or of service introduction of the general type. The engine power indicated is the maximum power; for jet engines this is the power with afterburner. Speed and Range are also maximum numbers. Especially the range number has a limited practical significance, but it is easier to compare the maximum range than the radius of action, because the latter may be influenced strongly by tactics and operational conditions. The Armament or Load indicated is also a maximum value. Everywhere 'mg' means machinegun and 'g' cannon; the calibre is indicated if known. An armament load in kilograms or pounds can indicate bombs, depth charges, torpedos, missiles, fuel, addiotinal guns, rockets, or even electronic equipment; the exact nature of the load is not indicated. A description like '2*b250kg' means that there are two attachment points with a maximum capacity of 250kg, and that the maximum load is 500kg. A load of '13150kg, 69seats' means 13150kg _or_ 69 people. Last but not least, a word about units. In a perfect world we would probably all use logical, consistent S.I. units; but the world isn't perfect. Many people, it seems, are still uncomfortable about kilograms and kilometers. In general, I tried to use metric units; but I did not convert all numbers. Relevant units are: Length: (S.I. : meter) 1 meter = 2.81 ft = 39.3 in 1 foot = 0.3048 m = 12 in 1 inch = 0.0254 m 1 statute mile = 1608 m = 5280 feet 1 nautical mile = 1852 m = 6076 feet Mass: (S.I. : kilogram) 1 pound = 0.4536 kg 1 kilogram = 2.205 lb Force: (S.I. : Newton) 1 pound = 4.448 N = 0.4536 kgf 1 kilogram force = 9.807 N = 2.205 lb 1 Newton = 0.2248 lb = 0.1020 kgf Power: (S.I. : Watt) 1 horsepower = 0.7457 kW 1 kilowatt = 1.341 hp But the horsepower used in countries with a metric units system is slightly different: only 0.735499 kW. The difference is in this case not very significant, because the power of engines is almost always given with only two significant digits, and thus usually with an accuracy of less than 1%. Any comments, corrections, and the like are very welcome. Please mail to gustin@uia.ac.be.