China’s Tetraphobia in Aircraft Nomenclature!
Ever wondered why China doesn’t use digit-4 in Aircraft Model naming or did you ever found yourself curious to uncover what does those designation alphabets means in Chinese Aircraft Nomenclature System?
At first take an example of this aircraft, Harbin Y-5; here “Harbin” is manufacturer, “Y” is the designation for Transport Aircraft and “5” is model number or variant. This is similar to U.S. aircraft nomenclature system. Now Let’s skim through other designation alphabets which remarks a distinct aircraft type.
Q-(强击机) QiángJīJī
Y-(运输机) YùnShūJī
Z-(直升机) ZhíShēngJī
L/JL-(教练机) JiàoLiànJī
S-(水上机) shuǐshàngJī
WZ-(无人机) wúrénjī
H-(轰炸机) HōngZhàJī
J-(歼击机) JiānJīJī
X-(滑翔机) huáxiángjī
U-(加油飞机) jiāyóu fēijī
SH-(水上轰炸机) shuǐshàng hōngzhàjī
CJ-(初级教练机) chūjí jiàoliànjī
JJ-(歼击机教练机) jiānjījī jiàoliànjī
JZ-(歼击机侦察机) jiānjījī zhēnchájī
JH-(歼击轰炸机) JiānJī HōngZhàJī
QD-(强击机电) qiángjījī diàn
Now focusing on our first question. East Asian nations have this superstitious misreasoning of avoiding number-4 in any instances thinking it’s unlucky kind of 13 for Westerns.
The reason behind this irrational belief is the homophonic similarity between the word
四-sì-Four and 死-sǐ-Death.Weird, right?
Although modern China trying to overcome this prejudice still you will hardly notice any Airplane Model with 4 or a car number plate which has 4! Chinese Aircraft Nomenclature System directly starts from 5, avoiding 1 to 4.
Writer: Myin Uddin
Shenyang Aerospace University, China
myinuddin22@gmail.com
