On 8 Jun 2004 22:51:01 -0700, (George) wrote:

"Harley W Daugherty" wrote in message link.net...

Kestrel, a small fast and maneuverable bird of prey.

Harley


That's about the only one I've heard that follows the USAF tradition
(at least the last three) of naming their fighter planes after birds
of prey. However, if we followed the Air Force trend, it may **** off
the swabbies.


The thing is the Kestrel has already been used. The Harrier
predecessor/prototype/experimental thing-a-ma-bob was called the
Kestrel. Most of the bird types are taken. You already have Eagles,
Falcons, Hawks, and so forth. I liked it back in the day like
Republic with it's Thunder------ and Grumman with it's cats. It's not
really written in stone that it needs to be a bird. You can tell they
really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with
"Raptor".