It just came to my mind
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Sometimes things in the military are known by their nicknames nearly as well (or even better) than their designations, lets see how many of these aircraft y’all can identify.
The Stringbag
Flying Zippo
Varnished Coffin
Flying Pencil
The Hunchback
Flying Prostitute
Sasha
Duchess of the Sky
Dumbo
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SAM-2?
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The Stringbag is the Fairey Swordfish
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Heard it called a “telephone pole,” with the official callsign being Guideline. Either way, not the “Flying Pencil” of WW2.
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The flying pencil was the Do-17.
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√ The Stringbag = Fairey Swordfish
Flying Zippo
Varnished Coffin
√ Flying Pencil = Dornier Do 17
The Hunchback
Flying Prostitute
Sasha
Duchess of the Sky
Dumbo
2 out of 9 so far. And the one was really a free-be.
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Was Duchess of the Sky a British flying boat of some kind?
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Flying Zippo = Betty bomber?
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Yep. The Mitsubishi G4M “Betty.”
3/9
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Trying really hard not to give up and google some of these.
Was Sasha a Russian biplane of some kind? I can’t remember the name of the thing but I think it used to do night nuisance raids on German lines or something like that.
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The struggle is real.
There are many more, but these were the ones I could think off the top of my head without Google help.
Sasha was Russian, but not a biplane. The nuisance raider was the Polikarpov Po-2, later called the “Mule.” Basically the Ruskie version of the Stearman.
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Hunchback.
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A few more (the first one should be fairly easy).
The Wooden Wonder
The Rat
The Sewing Machine
The Jug
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This one is driving me mad. I’m sure I read it somewhere.
How about the P-39?
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Ah, yeah. And it was sort of out of the timeframe etc…
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de Havilland Mosquito?
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Also known as the Timber Terror.
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Correct. The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 “Sparviero.”
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The Wooden Wonder - (answered already) the good old Mossie
The Rat - the Polikarpov I-16; earned the name “Rata” during the Spanish Civil War
The Sewing Machine - another Polikarpov, this time their crop-duster: the Po-2
The Jug - the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, in part due to the shape of the fuselage (looks like a milk jug) but mostly a short form of “juggernaut”
Not from what I heard. “Sasha” is going to be the most difficult, unless you’ve heard the anecdotal story regarding a Russian ace.
Still got “Varnished Coffin,” “Flying Prostitute,” Duchess of the Sky," and “Dumbo” left.
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