Big Easy (1948); Anyone who sees a psychiatrist...

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 09/18/2001 5:21:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:

>    _Big Easy 103_
>     BERLIN.  (...)  Thirty-five minutes earlier Big Easy 103 had come in
from
> Tempelhof.
>
>  (It's the name of an airplane.  This is easy to trace in military records--
> ed.)

I don't have enough context to be certain, but I am dubious that "Big Easy
103" is the name of an individual airplane.  Planes have tail numbers (i.e.
the number painted on the wings and tail) and some have nicknames.  However,
a nickname is highly unlikely to have a number in it, particularly a number
as high as 103.  "BIg Easy 103" sounds like a code name for an individual
flight of an airplane, or perhaps it refers to the 103rd in a series of
flights that were codenamed "Big Easy".

If "Big Easy" is a nickname, it may be quite difficult to chase down in
military records.  Official records about airplanes include considerable data
from maintenance logs and airport departure/arrival lists, and these logs
will, to avoid ambiguity, always refer to an airplane by its tail number or
its manufacturer's serial number.


         James A. Landau
         Systems Engineer
         FAA Technical Center (ACT-350/BCI)
         Atlantic City Airport NJ 08405 USA