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Some of you may have already come across those "Z" numbers that seem to pop up on every Convair company report.
Not very easy to find one's way through these, and I'm still struggling to make some sense of it all.
Still, I have been able to find the following prefixes and in some cases, to make out the meaning of the second letter:
Prefixes followed by an asterisk (*) also exist with the letter "F" affixed before (e.g. FZA-, FZP-...). I have not been able to determine for certain what the "F" stands for but it could be related to Fort Worth, one of the company's facilities. In most cases the "F" designations seem to fit in with the regular ones, although in at least one example I found a duplicate (ZP-110 was an twin-engine ASW project while FZP-110 was the MX-1554 program, which led to the F-102). The FZA- and FZP- designations can still be found well into the 1980s.
When the affixed letter is an "A", as in AZP-100, it is a space-related report from the Convair Astronautics division (in this case the "Ascent Two-Man System", a two-man space station with two-seater Mercury-style capsule). I also found AZM-... designations, for instance.
But most interesting are the ZD- and ZP- designations. Indeed, when followed only by a numeral they provide indications as to the Preliminary Design number (e.g. ZP-108, ZP-170 etc.). Here are a few I was able to glean:
Hope you're not having a headache by now!!! ;D
If you have other ZD- or ZP- designations, feel free to post them here! They can usually be found on the covers of Convair reports, but also on the corners of the page or the corners of the plans.
Not very easy to find one's way through these, and I'm still struggling to make some sense of it all.
Still, I have been able to find the following prefixes and in some cases, to make out the meaning of the second letter:
- ZA- ...... aerodynamics report *
- ZC- ...... contract report
- ZD- ...... design report
- ZG- ......
- ZH- ...... hydrodynamics report
- ZI- ......
- ZJ- ...... jet engine report
- ZK- ...... insulation materials report ? *
- ZM- ...... medical report *
- ZO- ......
- ZN- ......
- ZP- ...... preliminary design report *
- ZPh-...... physics report
- ZS- ...... structural analysis report *
- ZU- ......
- ZW- ...... weights report
- ZX- ......
- ZY- ...... *
Prefixes followed by an asterisk (*) also exist with the letter "F" affixed before (e.g. FZA-, FZP-...). I have not been able to determine for certain what the "F" stands for but it could be related to Fort Worth, one of the company's facilities. In most cases the "F" designations seem to fit in with the regular ones, although in at least one example I found a duplicate (ZP-110 was an twin-engine ASW project while FZP-110 was the MX-1554 program, which led to the F-102). The FZA- and FZP- designations can still be found well into the 1980s.
When the affixed letter is an "A", as in AZP-100, it is a space-related report from the Convair Astronautics division (in this case the "Ascent Two-Man System", a two-man space station with two-seater Mercury-style capsule). I also found AZM-... designations, for instance.
But most interesting are the ZD- and ZP- designations. Indeed, when followed only by a numeral they provide indications as to the Preliminary Design number (e.g. ZP-108, ZP-170 etc.). Here are a few I was able to glean:
- FZP-003 XB-53 brochure (April 1946)
- ZP-108 Summary Report – Preliminary Design Study VTOL Day Fighter (Contract# AF 33(616)-2313) (July 1954)
- ZP-110 Twin-engined ASW aircraft proposal
- FZP-110 MX-1626 strategic bomber which led to the HUSTLER
- ZP-164 Twin-engined ASW aircraft project
- ZP-170 Twin-engined ASW Patrol Seaplane Class VP (Detail Specification SD-531-1) (August 1956)
- ZP-178 Supersonic Attack Seaplane Configuration Study (April 1957)
- ZP-181 Combat Seaplane Configuration Study (December 1956)
- ZP-214 Study of various applications of the J58 engine (July 1958)
- ZP-258 Comparative Characteristics of Tilt-Wing, Ducted Propeller & G.E. Lift-Fan Military transport Type Aircraft With Combined VTOL & STOL Capability (May 1959)
- ZP-278 P6Y-style ASW seaplane design (1958)
- ZP-296 Convair VTOL/GETOL Logistic Transport Vehicle (February 1960)
- ZP-319 Study of Impact Loads and Motions of Ground Effect Machine (GEM) (November 1960)
- ZP-329 ANP Nuclear aircraft - New Naval Applications (1961-03)
- ZP-346 Ground Effect Machines - specialized tests with the DTMB configuration
- The initial Consolidated system ranges from Model 1 to Model 40. The ZD- designations related to the Model 28 Catalina, for instance, start with ZD-28-..., those on the Model 32 Liberator start with ZD-32-..., or those on the Model 40 Privateer start with ZD-40-..., etc.
- The intermediary Consolidated-Vultee system ranges from Model 100 to Model 118 (last known at least). ZD-117-001, for instance, indicates Model 117, the XP5Y-1 Tradewind.
- The Convair Liner series has non-standard model numbers such as 240, 340, 440, and these are used in the report numbers (for instance ZD-440-001 indicates the Convair 440 Metropolitan liner).
- The Convair system of the 1950s and 1960s starts with Model 1 and goes up to at least Model 61. Reports on the Model 4 Hustler, for example, begin with FZP-4-..., reports on the Model 8 Delta Dagger/Delta Dart begin with FZP-8-..., reports on the Convair 880 begin with FZP-22-..., etc.
Hope you're not having a headache by now!!! ;D
If you have other ZD- or ZP- designations, feel free to post them here! They can usually be found on the covers of Convair reports, but also on the corners of the page or the corners of the plans.
