The German "8" Series Type Numbers

[NARSES2]

My one week build will be a B&V project. Now I was looking for a suitable number for it so grabbed my trusty Putnam's German Aircraft of WWII from the shelves and looked in the appendix. Then hit a problem ?

Now it all looks fairly straightforward, starts at the Fi 5 and works it's way through to the Ju 299 without to many missing numbers and then it starts to go a bit ? Large gaps start to appear and then even larger ones. There is also the problem caused by the Me 109/209/309/609 sort of thing.

Now what I really want to know is that if I choose an unallocated number from around the time period I want, sometime in 1943/1944, is that ok ? Or am I missing something ?

It just seems to be so very efficient and German and then all goes to pot with manufacturers just seeming to grab numbers they fancied 

[PR19_Kit]

This is WhiffWorld Chris, doesn't matter a damn.  

Oder, hier ist WhiffWelt, es macht nicht............  

[jcf]

What the hell just grab something that sort of makes sense in relation to the 'real world' HFB/BV numbers,
and ignore the other manufacturers.


Also here is the Wiki page, which is more complete than the Putnam list as it includes unallocated numbers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RLM_aircraft_designations

[NARSES2]

Thanks for that list Jon, most helpful 

I still want to know why there were gaps though ? It's not important at all but it's just so un Germanic (or at least how in the UK we think of German efficiency). Piqued my interest a bit 

[Dizzyfugu]

The RLM was pretty accurate - but from a certain point on, when things got out of control, so did the consecutive type numbers, as updated variants received "erratic numbers" (e .g. the Bf 110, Me 210 and then the 410, or the Ju 88 derivatives). It becomes IMHO messy around the Me 262, and at that time MANY projects were on the paper - and some received rather futuristic type numbers. The Wikipedia list is pretty good, because it shows the allocated but then unused numbers, so it's good whif fodder. Referrred to the list for some of my German whfs, too.

Similar story in Japan - the IJA also had a very dense and complete list of kitai numbers (used and allocated but unused), and from Ki-90+ on things got a bit out of hand. Not as drastic as in Germany, but the same phenomenon.

[NARSES2]

Cheers Dizzy. What I thought really, the chaos of war