Subject: Number Seventy-Four in the Series--"P-74"

From: [email-masked]
Date: 26 May 93 16:21:34 GMT

>From [email-masked]

Authors who write about American fighter aircraft of the World War 2 
era are unanimous in stating categorically there never was a fighter 
project with the designation "P-74".  For some obscure reason, this 
particular number (and perhaps P-73 as well) seems to have been 
skipped.  The aviation historian James Fahey claims that the P-73 and 
P-74 designations were deliberately omitted as a result of political 
pressure applied to the Army by the Fisher Body Division of the 
General Motors Corporation.  In 1942, Fisher was hoping to interest 
the Army in its new escort fighter design.  At that time, the next 
available Army pursuit designation was P-73, but Fisher wanted the 
Army to assign to its new escort fighter a "nice symbolic number", 
something that would sound nice in advertising copy and would make for 
memorable slogans--something like "The French 75 in World War 1, the 
Fisher P-75 in World War 2" was envisaged.  Fisher got its way and the 
Army agreed to assign the designation P-75 to its escort fighter 
project, the designations P-73 and P-74 being deliberately skipped.  

In contrast to the P-73, I am aware of no sources that claim that 
there ever was a P-74.  

Source: 

  Fighters of the United States Air Force, Robert F. Dorr and David 
  Donald, Temple Press Aerospace, 1980.  

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.  

  American Combat Planes, Third Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner, Doubleday, 
  1982.  

Joe Baugher		AT&T Bell Laboratories   	
2000 North Naperville Road      Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033