[Milsurplus] was: Pre-WW2 USAAF nomenclature

[William Donzelli]

> No one that I know of has ever come across the instruction covering this. And 
> there are too few examples known to determine it empirically. Most examples 
> are "A*".

Most that we see today start with A, but back in the 1930s they were all
over the place. The little tone generators for the BC-114s were GN-WQ-33s
(I think - I am not home right now).

Off the top of my head, I have seen "first letter middle codes" A, B, C,
G, H, R, and W.

> First, it was both a Ground and an Aircraft set.  Second,
> although all but two of its dozen+ accessory units are also "AA", you
> have BC-AA-193 and BC-BB-193, and BC-AA-196 and BC-CC-196.

Even tubes got it - VT-BB-4. Never seen one, though.

> The above examples alone are internally inconsistent with any of the theories 
> of what the letters "meant". So I will simply contend that whatever the rule 
> might have been supposed to be, it was not followed correctly.

I tend to think the whole system was a failure, thus its short end.

William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org