USAF Aircraft 1950-1960 questions

[Orionfield]

Hi everyone. I am doing some research for my own insanity. I am cataloging every variant of every military aircraft used by the US Military. I am mostly concerned with which branches of of the military used each version, and what years that specific variant was in service for. Eventually I want to create some color profiles and posters for with the data I have. With that in mind, I am having some issues reconciling some Fighters listed in the USAF inventory.

Here is the document I am referencing: http://www.mitchellaerospacepower.o...of-Airpower-USAF-Aircraft-Inventory-1950-2016

In the section for Fighters it lists the following aircraft that I can not identify. My mind wants to think they are Naval aircraft used for evaluation, but the Post 1962 designations are throwing me off...

F-3, Qty: 1, 1958
F-6, Qty: 1, 1966
F-8, Qty: 2, 1960-61
F-11, Qty: 1, 1958
F-24, Qty: 1, 1951 - Pretty sure this is an A-24 Banshee Re-designated.

Any help would be great!

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

F-24 was the USAF redesignation of A-24 Dauntless dive bombers; although the A-24 wasn't a fighter, it was redesignated in the "F" category to avoid confusion with the B-24 Liberator. All A-24s were removed from service in 1950 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_SBD_Dauntless#United_States_Army_Air_Forces).

 

[Orionfield]

Okay, thats what I thought. The other fighters are really driving me nuts though.

 

[aim9xray]

Okay, thats what I thought. The other fighters are really driving me nuts though.

First, Welcome Aboard, Onionfield.

Those are very likely Navy aircraft that were briefly "owned" by the Air Force for administrative reasons. There are a number of anomalies in the list. Some are caused by oversimplification for the purposes of this report; for instance all development & test aircraft (see "AMST" which is really the two C-14 and two C-15 aircraft) are in the "Active Duty" category - which they were not.

Other interesting things ... well, the chart shows that the Air Force had 14 S-2 Trackers (Navy aircraft) on inventory during a fiscal year. And so on. Don't sweat it! Weird stuff happened for bureaucratic reasons sometimes, leaving us to try to figure it out 50 years later.

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

Okay, thats what I thought. The other fighters are really driving me nuts though.

First, Welcome Aboard, Onionfield.

Those are very likely Navy aircraft that were briefly "owned" by the Air Force for administrative reasons. There are a number of anomalies in the list. Some are caused by oversimplification for the purposes of this report; for instance all development & test aircraft (see "AMST" which is really the two C-14 and two C-15 aircraft) are in the "Active Duty" category - which they were not.

Other interesting things ... well, the chart shows that the Air Force had 14 S-2 Trackers (Navy aircraft) on inventory during a fiscal year. And so on. Don't sweat it! Weird stuff happened for bureaucratic reasons sometimes, leaving us to try to figure it out 50 years later.

Good observation. F-3, F-8, F-11, and F-6 were the 1962 redesignations of the F3H Demon, F8U Crusader, F11F Tiger, and F4D Skyray respectively, but F-7 and F-9 (redesignations of the F2Y Sea Dart and F9F-6/7/8 Cougar) don't appear in the chart.

 

[Orionfield]

Thats also what I originally thought, just confused about the Post 1962 designations being used in the 50's.

 

[edwest4]

Hi Orionfield,


Do you own every book about all aircraft development and service use between 1950 and 1960? That time period is my secondary field of interest after 1945 to 1949.


Good luck.

 

[TomS]

Thats also what I originally thought, just confused about the Post 1962 designations being used in the 50's.

It appears that if the aircraft received a post-1962 designation, the report uses that even for aircraft only in the USAF inventory before 1962.

 

[P-STICKNEY]

F-24 was the USAF redesignation of A-24 Dauntless dive bombers; although the A-24 wasn't a fighter, it was redesignated in the "F" category to avoid confusion with the B-24 Liberator. All A-24s were removed from service in 1950 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_SBD_Dauntless#United_States_Army_Air_Forces).

Actually, it's much simpler than that - in the pre 1948 system, 'A' was Light Bomber, which could be single or multi-engined.
In the 1948 redesignations, the separate Light Bomber category was eliminated,
all single-engined Light Bombers (Which in 1948 were a few A-24s used as hacks) were redesignated with 'F', in the new 'Fighter' category.
Multi-engined Light Bombers (Which in 1948 were only the Douglas A-26) were redesignated as B-26s. Since by that time the Martin B-26s were long gone, there wasn't any confusion in the traiing or support systems.