Home Page

Main Menu

Contact Us

Back to:

Trip Menu

Aircraft Nicknames

By Chris Smith

I've always been facinated by the nicknames bestowed upon aircraft by the enthusiast community and industry workers alike, and they are usually of a comedic nature. Some are well known, some have a multitude of nicknames, here we look at the common ones - with perhaps a few not-so-common examples thrown in the mix as well if they are particularly funny!


Some of the below nicknames are rude and/or crude - to censor them fully would lessen the impact.

A/C TYPE NICKNAME NOTES
Airbus
Aérospatiale Gazelle Chicken leg  
Airbus A318-100 Baby Bus / Minibus  
Airbus A340-300 Hairdryers (engines only)
Airbus A380-800 Whale  
BAe Systems
BAC 1-11 Pocket Rocket also applied to DC-9/HS125
British Aerospace 146 / Avro RJ Whisperjet G-BKHT "Hatfield Trash", G-BKMN "Mechanical Nightmare"
Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon Tiff / Tiffy / Typhoid  
Handley Page/British Aerospace Jetstream Junkstream / Jetscream  
Hawker Hunter Haunter  
Hawker Siddeley/British Aerospace 125 Pocket rocket  
Hawker Siddeley/British Aerospace Harrier Jump Jet  
Hawker Siddeley HS748 Budgie  
Panavia PA-200 Tornado Tonka  
Vickers Vanguard Vickers Vibrator  
Vickers VC-10 Victor Charles  
Boeing
Boeing 727 3-holer / Tri-jet  
Boeing 737 Pig  
Boeing 747 Lump / Queen of the Skies  
Boeing 747SP Stupid Purchase  
Boeing 757 Flying Pencil  
Boeing 777 Cripple Seven  
Boeing 787 Dreamliner Seven-Late-Seven  
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress BUFF Big Ugly Fat F**ker
Boeing Vertol CH-47 Chinook Wokka  
Bombardier
CRJ-100/200 Barbie Jet / Bullet  
Cessna
Cessna A150/A152 Aerobat Aerosplat  
Cessna 337 Skymaster Suck-and-blow  
Cessna 500 Citation Nearjet / Slowtation  
De Havilland
De Havilland DH106 Comet Vomit Comet  
De Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou N/A "The only aircraft known to man that could suffer a bird strike from behind!"
De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter Twotter  
De Havilland Canada/Bombardier DHC-8 Dash 8 / Crash 8  
Embraer
Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante Bandit  
Embraer ERJ-135/140/145 Jungle Jet / Dart / WiSCOD Whistling S**tcan of Death
Embraer ERJ-170/175/190/195 Jungle Jet / Womble  
Fairchild
Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II Warthog / Hog  
Fairchild Swearingen SA-227 Metro San Antonio Sewer Pipe / Death pencil  
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy FRED F**king Ridiculous Economic Disaster
Lockheed C-130 Hercules Fat Albert  
Lockheed Constellation Connie  
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter Flying coffin / Widowmaker  
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar Death Star  
Lockheed JetStar Lawn Dart  
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II DAVE Delayed And Very Expensive
McDonnell Douglas
Douglas A-26 Invader Flying Prostitute Possible confusion with the Martin B-26 Marauder
Douglas DC-8 DC Late  
McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Pocket rocket  
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Crowd killer (!!)  
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 Scud As well as resemblance, once launched you were never sure where it would land!
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 Mad Dog  
McDonnell Douglas MD-95 John Holmes condom What on earth?!
Short Brothers
Short 330 Shed  
Short 360 Box / Shed  
Everything Else
Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Crystal S**thouse (!!) Chance this could be in reference to the Blackburn B-24 Skua
Gloster Javelin Flat Iron  
Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk Traumahawk  
Rockwell B-1 Lancer Bone  
Tupolev Tu-144 Concordski  
Westland Wasp/Scout Whistling S**thouse  
Helicopters Whisk / Whirly