Figure 1.- |
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The British and Americans began experimenting with aircraft and carriers at the end of World War I. The first U.S. carrier was the USS Langley. The U.S. Navy air squadron designations are a little confusing.
The first letter "V" stood for "Heavier-than-air,", as opposed to "Z" which stood for Lighter-than-air, i.e. dirigibles, which figured very prominntly in U.S. naval planning during the the inter-War period. They had a lot of advantages, especially range, when compared with 1920s-era aircraft. Dirigibles were phased out after some unfortunate accidents. So as it turned out, all Navy and Marine World War II air squadrons had the "V" designtion. The second letter "M" meant Marine Corps. No second letter, by omission, meant Navy. Thus VF-17 was a Navy Fighter Squadron. The third (and possible fourth) letters indicated the purpose of and type of aircraft flown by the squadron:
"F" = Fighter
"SB" = Scout Bombing
"TB" = Torpedo Bombing
"O" = Observation
"J" = Transport & Photographic
Thus, Marine Fighting Squadrons were identified by "VMF," such as VFM-323. Night fighting tactics were developed on the USS Enterprise after a series of night attacks by Japanese land-based bombers. Night fighting squadrons were designted by "VMF(N)."
And don't mix up the airplane V with the navy's ship V as in a carrier number. The ship "V" means Attack.
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