 the 1962 united states tri-service aircraft designation system is a unified designation system introduced by the united states department of defense on 18 september 1962 for all u.s. military aircraft. prior to this date, the armed services used separate nomenclature systems. under the 1962 system, almost all aircraft receive an unified designation, whether operated by the united states air force (usaf), united states navy (usn), united states marine corps (usmc), united states army, or united states coast guard (uscg). experimental aircraft operated by manufacturers or the national aeronautics and space administration are also often assigned numbers in the x-series. the 1962 system was based on the one used by the usaf between 1948 and 1962 which was in turn based on the usaas/usaac/usaaf system used from 1924 to 1948. since it was introduced, the 1962 system has been modified and updated; in 1997 a revised form of the system was released.designating and naming defense military aerospace vehicles, u.s. dod, 14 march 2005. ==designation system== the designation system produces a mission-design-series (mds) designation of the form: :(status prefix)(modified mission)(basic mission)(vehicle type)-(design number)(series letter) of these components, only the basic mission, design number and series letter are mandatory. in the case of special vehicles a vehicle type symbol must also be included. the u.s. air force characterizes this designation system as "mds", while the navy, and marine corps refer to it as type/model/series (t/m/s).http://www.navair.navy.mil/napra/ ===status prefix=== these optional prefixes are attached to aircraft not conducting normal operations, such as research, testing and development. the prefixes are: * g: permanently grounded * j: special test, temporary * n: special test, permanent * x: experimental * y: prototype * z: planning a temporary special test means the aircraft is intended to return to normal service after the tests are completed, while permanent special test aircraft are not. the planning code is no longer used but was meant to designate aircraft "on the drawing board". for example, using this system an airframe such as the f-13 could have initially been designated as zf-13 during the design phase, possibly xf-13 if experimental testing was required before building a prototype, the yf-13; the final production model would simply be designated f-13 (wi
1962_in_the_United_States Military_aircraft_designation_systems United_States_Department_of_Defense United_States_military_aircraft