28 March 2008

Dispatches from the Line Mk.Y-I

So I know that this is the Jasperse Family Blog, the repository of all things Wingnut, the home of my general musings and thinkings, as well as other general bloginess. I know that it is all these things and more. I know, as the administrator and main author of this page (there are two authors, actually!), that this page can be whatever I make it into.

As many of you know, I work at the "Big City Airport". Locally, it is known as Gerald R Ford International Airport. If you look in an Ac-U-Kwik, which I'm guessing not many of you get the chance to do, it would be listed by the alpha-numeric Identifier, GRR.

I work second shift, something that I have grown to love and loathe, especially now that Shan is going back to work, and my son is at home. That's a different topic for a different post. The point today is that second shift affords me a bit more down time than first shift. I therefore have more time for my mind to wander off alone somewhere. More often than not, for some reason, these thoughts have something to do with aviation.

But these thoughts usually aren't really aviation-specific, and it would be misleading to label them as such. So here is a hybrid label: Dispatches.

I imagine it being a semi-regular feature, consisting of all the random stuff that floats around between my ears having to do with life and work with wings and wingnuts. Probably funny stories too, I have a bunch of those.

Perhaps I should not put so much thought into something so trivial as blog entry labels. Before you think that, I should inform you that this idea sprung up in mere seconds last night. It's not like I put a lot of thought into this!

A quick note about the numbering: Since this is intended to be a series, I felt I should number them. Why Mk? Mk is an abbreviation of Mark, the term that the Brits use to designate different variations of their aircraft. The variants were listed as different Marks, with each successive one receiving a higher number. They used Roman numerals, hence the I for the first Mark. In the US, by contrast, most aircraft with numerous variations will have the model number of the aircraft followed by a letter of the alphabet, hence my favorite warbird, the B-17G, or the aircraft I trained in, a C-172Q.

But Y? The Y preceding the numeral is a designation that is used by the United States military to designate a test version of an aircraft, not yet in production or use by the military. During the testing phase, future production aircraft had their designating number preceded by Y, like the YF-22 Raptor (now just F-22), or the current "next big thing", the YF-35.

Okay, that's enough. I'm going back to work now.


wingnut

2 comments:

jimkastkeat said...

Mk Y-1

I feel smarter now.

Madeline said...

Hey S/J,

Check out the trailer for this new documentary that Tim and I are interested in seeing:

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php

-Jess