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'Tranche' is used to refer to groupings or production runs of fighter
aircraft. Here's a reference from the Wikipedia entry for the
Eurofighter:<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Production is divided into three "tranches"
(see table below) with an
incremental increase in capability with each tranche. Tranches are
further divided up into batches and blocks, eg the RAF's Tranche one
twin seaters are batch 1 T1s and batch 2 T1As.</blockquote>
An article in has a headline referring also to Tranche 2 of the
Eurofighter:<br>
<br>
Eurofighter Tranche 2 Provides Rare Comfort to Fighter Makers<br>
(from <b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://tinyurl.com/334mtn">http://tinyurl.com/334mtn</a> )<br>
<br>
</b>I know from reading Aviation Week that it's not only used for
European fighters--I'm pretty sure I've seen it used in discussions of
the production of the American F-16.<br>
<br>
It's apparently also used in finance (again, Wikipedia, here the entry
for 'tranching'):<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"> the word <b>tranche</b> (sometimes <b>traunche</b>)
refers to one of several related <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Securitized_bond&action=edit"
class="new" title="Securitized bond">securitized bonds</a> offered as
part of the same deal. The word <b>tranche</b> is <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language"
title="French language">French</a> for slice; in the financial sense
of the word, each <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_%28finance%29"
title="Bond (finance)">bond</a> (¿tranche?) is a slice of the deal's <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk" title="Risk">risk</a>. The
legal documents (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indenture"
title="Indenture">indenture</a>) usually refer to the tranches as
"classes" of notes identified by letter (e.g. the Class A, Class B,
Class C securities).</blockquote>
I don't have the time right now to do the real investigation, but I'm
sure others can pick this up and run with it...<br>
<br>
Geoff<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Geoffrey S. Nathan
Computing and Information Technology and Department of English
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI, 48202
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:geoffnathan@wayne.edu">geoffnathan@wayne.edu</a>
C&IT Phone (313) 577-1259
English Phone (313) 577-8621 </pre>
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