If only the Tomtit had been a fighter….

Transport.
Albemarle (Duke title)

Light Bomber.
Blenheim (castle/battle honour)

Medium Bomber.
Wellesley (surname)
Hereford (Vicount title)
Wellington (Duke title)
Hampden (Vicount title)
Buckingham (Duke and Earl title)

Torpedo bomber.
Beaufort (Duke title)

The only system i see is the connection to the nobility and the idea of matching first letters to something.

The word Albemarle (or Albermarle) is an early variant of the French Aumale (Latin, Alba Marla, or English, White Marl, marl being a type of fertile soil), other forms being Aubemarle and Aumerle, and is described in the patent of nobility granted in 1697 by William III to Arnold Joost van Keppel as “a town and territory in the Dukedom of Normandy.”

The name Beaufort refers to a castle in Champagne, France (now Montmorency-Beaufort). It is the only current Dukedom to take its name from a place outside the British Isles.

From Wikipedia.

Blenheim parish lies c. 8 miles (12 km.) north-west of Oxford, adjoining the west side of Woodstock. (fn. 20) In origin it was Woodstock Park, an ancient royal hunting reserve granted with Woodstock manor by Queen Anne in 1705 to John Churchill, duke of Marlborough, to honour his victory at the battle of Blenheim. Granted with the park were the king’s houses (sometimes called the royal palace or manor house of Woodstock), demolished soon afterwards. (fn. 21) The duke’s new house there was called first Blenheim House then Blenheim Palace and the park became Blenheim Park.

Woodstock Park was extra-parochial, its tithes having been granted to Godstow abbey, allegedly in the 12th century. (fn. 22) After the Dissolution the Crown granted the tithes to George Owen, the king’s physician, whose son George sold them in 1612 to John Whitton; they were then held by the Whittons, comptrollers of the park, until William Whitton sold them to the duke in 1705. In 1860 they were formally merged in the land. (fn. 23) Under an Act of 1857 the extra-parochial area was deemed a civil parish, Blenheim Park; (fn. 24) it comprised 2,269 a., although the park itself was slightly larger, having taken in land from adjacent parishes. (fn. 25) In 1897 the parish was extended to the line of the park wall near Seven Arches Bridge, taking in c. 1 a. from Woodstock borough. (fn. 26) In 1954 a new civil parish, Blenheim, was created by adding to the former Blenheim Park parish 40 a. at the south-east corner of the park, including land outside the walls, all formerly part of Hensington Without. The new parish comprised 2,310 a. (935 ha.) and included all the park except an area in the south-east around the Lince which remained in Bladon. (fn. 27)

From http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=4956

I do read posts, but I was writing mine while you posted yours.

Hampden was/is (these areas aren’t so well known now) an area in the UK, same as Wellesley, Hereford, Wessex, Wellington, Albemarle, Buckingham, Blenheim, Beaufort etc.
They happen to have Dukes of those areas thus carrying the name.

I think Blenheim is in Germany. However, in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, there is a Blenheim Palace. This castle was build for the 1st Duke of Marlborough as thanks for his victory in the battle of Blenheim.

Is there an actual place in the UK called Blenheim too?

Side note: There is no duke of Blenheim.

See Dave’s post which is a quote from the Air Min. End of story.

Sorry, this isn’t the first load of obvious balls that Boeing (and other companies through their PR focussed websites) have foisted on people, and company ‘histories’ are notoriously unreliable. When researching, I never use the public company history as a reliable source, and it is so often wrong as well. Company papers etc (the ‘private’ history) are, of course, a goldmine.

As well as being a very entertaining thread, and a useful one, it’s a good case study in how to evaluate evidence…

Regards,

There is no specific mention of the name Dakota in the AM quote.

Surely we can locate the oldest use of the name Dakota somewhere. It must be a decision that was written down.

We have yet to see an official story other than the Douglas Aircraft ect.

It might not be the gospel, but its what they say on the Boeing website. Any other background story is at the moment pure speculation. This story has the backing of Boeing, of which Douglas is now a division.

If the acronym story has to be disproven, we need a higher level of authority to do so, perhaps a document from RAF, MOD, or AM.

http://www.boeing.com/history/mdc/skytrain.htm

I think you are right, but I will be looking never-the-less.

At the moment I’m leaning towards the Douglas Aircraft KOmercial TAransport story. As the name Dakota is far too obscure to find its way into British aircraft designations in 1940 (at least I find it obscure).

Were the British Dakota I specially produced for the British, or was it just a number of aircraft shipped?

I have seen a few places, where the Dakota name is connected to a pre-war naming of the DC-3. This could mean that the British simply adapted the civilian name, as it sounded well american, or otherwise fitted with their naming policies.

I’m currently searching for a pre-war document, or picture, where the DC-3, or a variant thereof, is refered to as a Dakota.