Question: Why did the U.S. military start using letters to name the airplanes it uses? For example B-17, P-51, F-86? Answer: The letters are the military way of identifying the purpose of the aircraft ...

Aircraft names are typically a sterile combination of letters and numbers with little consideration for public perception. Boeing jets, however, have names that differentiate their planes in the ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. What's in a name? When it comes to the 100 years of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, answering this question can get complicated.

The iconic sci-fi franchise "Star Trek" has an interesting relationship with the U.S. military, especially when it comes to the names of ships and aircraft. This isn't a coincidence, since Gene ...