Question about Russian airplane names

[George Fowler]

Greetings!

An old friend of mine (no connection to our field, though he did take
Russian in college) sent me a message asking about Russian names or
nicknames for some of their airplanes. I have the strong impression
that Russians do in fact use the alphanumeric designations even in
casual discourse, but I would be happy to be proven wrong on this. If
anyone knows of some more descriptive names, or a source to look them
up in, please email me off list. Thanks!

George Fowler

>In our modeling and simulation efforts for AFOTEC, we are periodically called
>upon to model Russian fighter aircraft.  The NATO designations for these are
>very well known - Fishbed for the MiG-21, Flogger for the MiG-23, Foxbat
>for the MiG-25, Fulcrum for the MiG-29, and Foxhound for the MiG-31, for
>example.
>
>Do you know what the Russians themselves call these aircraft, or do you know
>likely sources for this information?  I've done a little Web surfing
>and so far can only come up with the NATO designations.  The Jane's
>aircraft series notes that there are factory designations for these
>aircraft (the Fulcrum-A is aircraft 9.13, for  instance, with the
>Foxbat-D called aircraft 02K).   But I have to think that they have
>actual names for these aircraft, and I'm pretty sure they only use
>the NATO names themselves when talking to Westerners.

************************************************************************
George Fowler                                [Email] gfowler at indiana.edu
Dept. of Slavic Languages        [dept. tel.] 1-812-855-9906/-2608/-2624
Ballantine 502                                [dept. fax] 1-812-855-2107
1020 E. Kirkwood Ave.                         [home tel.] 1-317-726-1482
Indiana University                             [home fax] 1-317-726-1642
Bloomington, IN 47405-7103                 [Slavica tel.] 1-812-856-4186
USA                                         [Slavica fax] 1-812-856-4187
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