U.S. Military Aircraft Nicknames

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I thought it would be fun to compile a list of U.S. military aircraft nicknames. This isn’t an exhaustive list, nor is it original. In fact, it’s one that’s been compiled elsewhere on the internet (see reference section).

As you may know, aviation isn’t really my area of interest. I don’t know much about aircraft, doctrine, or operations, apart from knowing what the general role of each aircraft is. I don’t mean to imply that I’m dismissive of aviation, but it’s not the main focus of my research. However, I do enjoy the odd sense of humor that comes out of the military. Pilots and aviators love to give strange, bawdy, or politically incorrect nom de guerre to their machines. I’ve tried to do some basic research, however, I can’t guarantee the accuracy of many of these nicknames. No doubt, many of them are probably apocryphal or hardly ever used. Take them with a grain of salt.

Note that some entries have been consolidated or are listed by a more generic designation. Many aircraft have electronic warfare and reconnaissance variants, but I’ve only listed them separately if their nickname(s) seemed to warrant a separate listing. I’ve also listed many of the helicopters under their “HH” designation because the same helicopter design can have many different variants and designations depending on what branch of service they were in and what role they were configured for. (e.g. the Sikorsky S-70 design is known as the UH-60 Black Hawk (U.S. Army), HH-60 Pave Hawk (U.S. Air Force), SH-60 Seahawk (U.S. Navy), and the HH-60J Jayhawk (U.S. Coast Guard), not to mention the numerous other variants/upgrades of each design). Also, the Tri-Service Designation system was introduced in 1962 which changed some of the alpha-numeric designations. For example, fighter aircraft were originally given the designation of “P” (for pursuit fighter) were changed to “F” (for fighter).

Finally, many of these aircraft have the same nicknames. This is because many of the nicknames are generically applied to the aircraft type, size, design, or role, as opposed to the specific aircraft.

Alpha-numeric Designation	Official Service Name	Nickname(s)
A-3D	Skywarrior	Whale, All Three Dead (it had no ejection seats)
A-4	Skyhawk	Scooter, Heinemann’s Hotrod (after its designer, Ed Heinemann), Mongoose, Bantam Bomber, Mighty Mite, Skyhog, Tinker Toy
A-5	Vigilante	Vigie, Viggie (both pronounced with short “i” and soft “g”)
A-6	Intruder	Drumstick, Pregnant Guppy, Dogship, Man-eater (a man got sucked into the engine once, he lived), Tadpole
A-7	Corsair II	SLUF (Short Little Ugly Fucker)
A-10	Thunderbolt II	Warthog, Hog, Porker, SLAT (Slow, Low Aerial Target)
A-26	Invader	Little Hummer, Little Racer
AC-130A/E/H	Spectre	Spooky, Puff the Magic Dragon, Dragon (these names were also shared with the Vietnam-era predecessor AC-47)
AD-1	Skyraider	Spad, Able Dog (from the old phonetic alphabet), Fat Face, Flying Dump truck
AF-2	Guardian	Fertile Myrtle, Guppy, Scrapper
AH-1G	Cobra	Snake
AH-1W	Super Cobra	Whiskey, Whiskey Cobra
AT-17	Bobcat	Bamboo Bomber, Double-breasted Cub, Rhapsody in Glue, Useless 78
AT-6	Texan	Awful Terrible Six
AV-8	Harrier	Jump Jet, Scarier, Whistling Shitcan
B-1	Lancer	Bone (from “B One”), Lawn Dart
B-2	Spirit	Black Knight, Boomerang, Budget Bomber
B-17	Flying Fortress	Queen
B-24	Liberator	Cee One-Oh-Boom (C-109 cargo variant)
B-25	Mitchell	Billy’s Bomber
B-26	Marauder	Baltimore Whore, Flying Prostitute, Widow maker
B-36	Peacemaker	Aluminum Overcast, Magnesium Overcast, Six Turnin’ & Four Burnin’ (it had six radial prop and four jet engines), Big Stick
B-52	Stratofortress	Aluminum Overcast, BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fucker), Coconut Knocker, Monkeyknocker
B-57	Canberra	Cranberry
B-58	Hustler	Delta Queen
BT-13	Valiant	Bee Tee, Vibrator
C-3	Trimotor	Flying Washboard, Tin Goose
C-5	Galaxy	Aluminum Overcast, Cumulus Aluminus, Big Mac, Fat Albert, Linda Lovelace (its nose section pivots up allowing vehicles to drive up into it), FRED (Fucking Ridiculous Economic Disaster)
C-17	Globemaster III	Mighty Mouse, Buddha, Moose, Barney
C-45	Expeditor	Bug Smasher, Slow Navy Bomber (SNB Kansan variant)
C-47	Dakota	Dowager Duchess, Gooney Bird, Grand Old Lady, Old Methuselah, Placid Plodder
C-69	Constellation	Connie, Flying Speed brake
C-82	Packet	Crowd Killer
C-119	Flying Boxcar	Crowd Killer, Dollar Nineteen
C-124	Globemaster II	Aluminum Overcast, Old Shaky
C-130	Hercules	Herc, Herky Bird, Fat Albert, Vibrator, Bugsmasher, Bleed Air Blimp, Hog
C-135	Stratolifter	Silver Sow, Chipmunk (RC-135C variant), Hog nose (RC-135M), Lead Sled (RC-135U)
C-141	Starlifter	Lockheed Lizard (when in camo paint), Star Lizard (same), Quarter Pounder, T-tailed mountain magnet
E-1	Tracer	Willie Fudd, Stoof With a Roof
E-2	Hawkeye	Hummer (for the noise the engines make)
E-3	Sentry	AWACS (Airborne Early Warning and Control System), Frisbee
E-6A	Hermes/Mercury	Gecko (they can lose (and have lost) their tail and kept flying)
EA-3	Skywarrior	Electric Whale (Electronic warfare variant of the A-3D)
EA-6B	Prowler	Queer (from the “VAQ” squadron designation. Electronic warfare variant of the A-6), Q-bird, Double Ugly, Gliding Electric Show, Sterile Arrow
EC-130H	Compass Call	Electric Herc
EC-130E	Commando Solo	Clipper (pods make it resemble a seaplane)
EF-111	Raven	Spark Vark
ES-3	Shadow	Electro-Lux
F2H	Banshee	Banjo
F3H	Demon	Lead Sled
F3D	Skyknight	Drut (“turd” spelled backwards), Whale
F4D	Skyray	Ford
F-4	Phantom II	Lead Sled, Double Ugly, Rhino (some models had a nose pitot tube), Flying Footlocker, Bug Basher, Old Smokey, Big Iron Sled, Flying Brick, St. Louis Slugger, World’s Leading Distributor of MiG Parts
F-5A, B	Freedom Fighter	Dinky Toy, Skoshi Tiger (“skoshi” is Japanese for “a little”)
F-8	Crusader	MiG Master, Crud, ‘Sader
F-14	Tomcat	Turkey, Tomkitty, Cat, Tomgrape, Bombcat (when configured for air-to-ground missions), Peeping Tom (when carrying the TARPS recon pod)
F-15	Eagle	Beagle (E variant, contraction of “bomb eagle”), Mudhen (dark grey E variant), Albino (light grey C variant), Flying Tennis Court, Starship, Ego Jet, Big Bird
F-16	Fighting Falcon	Viper, Lawn dart, Electric Jet, Icepick, Little Hummer
F/A-18	Hornet	Bug, Plastic Bug, Rhino (F/A-18E/F Super Hornet)
F-35	Lightning II	Fat Amy, Panther
F-84	Thunderjet	Hog, Lead Sled, Lieutenant Eater
F-84F	Thunderstreak	Ground-loving whore, Super Hog
F-86D	Sabre	Sabre Dog,
F-89	Scorpion	FOD Vacuum, Stanley Steamer
F-100	Super Sabre	Clunk (because of the sounds it would make while sitting in the hangar with no one near it), Super Sled, Hun, Silver Dollar, Slick Chick (RF-100A recon variant)
F-101	Voodoo	One-Oh-Wonder
F-102	Delta Dagger	Deuce, Dagger, Tub (TF-102)
F-104	Starfighter	Zipper, Missile with a Man in It, Sled, Widowmaker (for its reputedly poor safety record with the Luftwaffe)
F-105	Thunderchief	Thud, Nickel, Lead Sled, Iron Butterfly, Mighty Iron Hardware, Squash Bomber, Triple Threat, Ultra Hog
F-106	Delta Dart	Six, Dart, Six Shooter
F-111	Aardvark	‘Vark, Switchblade Edsel, Ramp Vac, McNamara’s Folly, Flying Edsel, Swinger
F-117	Nighthawk	Cockroach (they run away when the lights come on), Roach, Stinkbug, Black jet, Goblin, Wobblin’ Goblin, Ghost, Bat plane
F3F	–	Fifi
F4U	Corsair	Hog, hose nose, bent-wing widow maker, bent-wing bird, Whistling Death
F7U	Cutlass	Gutless (underpowered engines & a high accident rate)
HH-3	Sea King/Jolly Green Giant/Pelican	Sea Pig, Junglie
HH-21	Shawnee/Workhorse	Flying Banana
HH-43	Huskie	Flying Shithouse
HH-47	Chinook	Hook, Shithook
HH-53	Sea Stallion/Pave Low	Super Jolly Green Giant, Super Shitter (CH-53E Super Stallion)
HH-60	Black Hawk/Seahawk/Pave Hawk/Jayhawk	Crash hawk, Catfish, Velcro hawk
HH-65	Dolphin	Tupperwolf (portmanteau of tupperware and Airwolf, portions of the airframe are made out of composite and it resembles the helicopter from the TV series)
KC-10	Extender	Snoopy
KC-135	Stratotanker	Strato-Bladder, Steam Jet, Fanbird (R variant equipped with turbofans), Flying Gas Station, GLOB (Ground Loving Old Bastard), Tank
LOH-58	Kiowa	Loach (from Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) designation)
OH-6	Cayuse	Little Bird, Egg, Killer Egg, Loach, Olive on a Toothpick
P2V	Neptune	Snake
P5M	Marlin	Frog
P-38	Lightning	Fork-tailed Devil, Droop Snoot (J & L bombing variants)
P-40	Warhawk	Gypsy Rose Lee (L variant)
P-47	Thunderbolt	Jug, Superbolt, T-bolt
P-51	Mustang	Peter Dash Flash, Spam Can, Cadillac of the Skies
PT-22	Recruit	Maytag Messerschmitt
R-4	Hoverfly	Flying Eggbeater, Frustrated Palm Tree
S-2	Tracker	Stoof
S-3	Viking	Hoover, War Hoover
SB2C	Helldiver	Big-Tailed Beast, Beast, Two-Cee, Son-of-a-Bitch 2nd Class
SBD	Dauntless	Barge, Clunk, Slow But Deadly, Speedy Three (SBD-3 variant)
SR-71	Blackbird	Habu (Japanese for pit viper, several SR-71s were based out of Kadena), Sled, Lead Sled
T-2	Buckeye	Guppy, North American Safety Jet
T-33	Shooting Star	T-Bird
T-34	Mentor	Radial Interceptor
T-37	Dragonfly	Dog Whistle, Converter (converts fuel into noise), Tweety Bird, Tweet, Killer Tweet, Howler, Screamer, Hummer
T-38	Talon	White Rocket, Smurf (blue-camo AT-38s)
T-43	–	Gator (short for “navigator”), Flying Classroom (used to train USAF navigators), Strike Pig
T-46	–	Thunder Piglet
TBF	Avenger	Pregnant Beast, Turkey
U-2	U-2	Angel, Dragon Lady, Useless Deuce
UH-1	Iroquois	Huey, Hog, Slick
X-20	Dyna-Soar (Dynamic Soarer)	Dinosaur
X-24A	–	Flying Potato
X-24B	–	Flying Flatiron
X-29	–	Polecat
XB-70	Valkyrie	Overcast
XP-54	–	Swoose Goose
XP-55	Ascender	Ass-ender (Engine is in a pusher configuration)
XF-84H	–	Thunderscreech
XF-85	Goblin	Bumble Bee
XF-92	–	Seven Balls Two