The Ford and the Stoof

Before the "unified designation system" for aircraft was introduced, the United States Navy used its own alpha-numeric method. Sometimes this resulted in a popular, unofficial nickname. Two airplanes that got renamed that way were the Skyray and the Tracker.

In plain view, the Skyray resembled fish belonging to the "Ray" order (Stingray, etc) and was a real hot rod. A jet fighter with an afterburner, the Skyray was the first supersonic carrier-based fighter and held several speed and time to climb records. It was a gorgeous machine but had a rather short life from 1956 to 1964.

F4D was the Nav...