1824: Identification Chart
| Identification Chart |
 Title text: Be careful-it's breeding season, and some of these can be *extremely* defensive of their nests. |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
Some aircraft are named after animals, including birds of prey, other birds, and insects. This comic presents an "identification guide" of silhouettes, each with the fuselage of an aircraft and the wings of the flying animal from which the aircraft gets its name. All are birds with the exception of the hornet that is an insect. This would be absurd if it was a cyborg or a plane with the feathers designed, as bird wings are usually made to support the lightweight structure of a bird and supporting the parts of a plane with its human pilot would be impossible.[citation needed]
The comic highlights not only the various designs of aircraft tails, but also bird wings. Some wings are highly adapted for soaring (eagle), speed (falcon), as well as rapid acceleration and short flights (blackbird).
| Name | Plane | Explain |
|---|---|---|
| Osprey | V-22 Osprey | The tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey has been in development since the 1980ies, and was introduced to the U.S. Armed Forces in 2007. |
| Hornet | F/A-18 Hornet | A design stemming from the 1970ies, the U.S. Navy now flies an updated and larger version, the F-18E/F. |
| Falcon | F-16 Falcon | A smaller, more versatile fighter jet. Has been sold to many foreign air forces. |
| Harrier | Harrier_Jump_Jet | The first operational STOL/VTOL fighter. They are known for their use in the Falklands War (1982), where they, for a lack of aircraft carriers, even operated from converted cargo ships. |
| Eagle | F-15 Eagle | Introduced in 1976, other jets like F-16 have filled its role. The U.S. Air National Guard is the largest operater as of now. |
| Kestrel | Kestrel_K-350 | The Kestrel is a single-engine, proof-of-concept aircraft, similar to the Pilatus PC-12. |
| Hawk | Hawk T1 | A trainer aircraft. T-45 Goshawk is the U.S. designation of that aircraft. |
| Blackbird | SR-71 Blackbird | A hypersonic spy aircraft, known for its speed and engine concept (which works both as a turbine and a ramjet). |
Transcript
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This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks. |
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Clearly these are the flappy planes from https://www.xkcd.com/1322/
Birdwatchers have a technique for identifying birds by silhouette called Giss (pronounced Jizz) it stands for General Impression, size, and shape During WWI-II peacetime birdwatchers used the same technique to spot and call or planes. Think it could be a reference to that? 4/17/2017
Hi, I have partially added a table, can someone who is better at tables fill it in? Thanks.Dontknow (talk) 04:42, 14 April 2017 (UTC)
I was in Cambridge last week and an Osprey cruised overhead at a very low altitude. Was seriously cool to see. Randall lives nearby. Perhaps that's what inspired this comic? 162.158.75.94 06:43, 14 April 2017 (UTC)
When I saw "Hawk" I thought of a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. RChandra (talk) 10:54, 14 April 2017 (UTC)
- That could also be referencing the A-4 Skyhawk (chart updated) 172.68.65.138
Corrected some spellings and made the English a bit more idiomatic. Hypersonic is usually considered Mach 5 and higher, so altered that as the SR71 was fast but not that fast. Added reference to the Hawker Sea Hawk to the Hawk discussion, but the silhouette is clearly a BAe Hawk (tailplanes different shape from A4 Skyhawk or Hawker Sea Hawk, and a jet unlike the Cessna).
[F-15]: "other jets like F-16 have filled its role. The U.S. Air National Guard is the largest operator as of now." The F-15 is a current, front-line fighter. Only older models are in the ANG.
[F-16]: "A smaller, more versatile fighter jet." Just smaller.
- Falcons are most definitely more versatile if you include everything it can do in Iron Eagle (irony noted). Although the Air Force would not allow for American F-16s to be used in the movie, for obvious reasons - mainly proliferating the idea that the Air Force is so inept that a reservist Lieutenant Colonel and a high school senior can commandeer two fully loaded F-16s, fly them halfway around the world (from what looks like California to a generic Middle Eastern country), engage in an act of war by firing at another country's planes, rescue said high schooler's father, and make it back. And then the kid still somehow is able to avoid any time at Leavenworth and actually makes it into the Air Force Academy.
Could this comic be a continuation of where Randall believes we are heading? The direction of our country, and the world? It seems a warning.
Reminds me of a how Navajo code talkers used the names of birds in place of different aircraft (eg, the Navajo word for "hummingbird" was code for "fighter plane").108.162.237.178 15:00, 14 April 2017 (UTC)
Should we reference this XKCD/What-If page, which has a similar drawing: https://what-if.xkcd.com/149/
Actually, that was comparing actual birds with a plane thrown in for humour. This is different. Dontknow (talk) 23:44, 17 April 2017 (UTC)
The F/A-18 is most likely an A/B/C/D variant as opposed to the E/F Super Hornet, based on the smaller LERX (leading-edge root extensions), whereas the Super Hornets have very large LERX.
Real images of birds (and an insect) and aircrafts
Real silhouette of an V-22 Osprey aircraft: --JakubNarebski (talk) 19:48, 16 April 2017 (UTC)
Politics?
There is no reason to believe this comic is political, or that it has anything to do with Trump-induced sadness. Why force politics where it doesn't belong? 172.68.154.64 07:44, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
