Aviation reference used as a name.

[mirrodie]

While on a flight recently, I read the Heidi Klum and Seal's first childs name is

Henry Gunther Ademola Dashtu Samuel.


Upon explaining the basis for hte name, they said the Dashtu is "aviation slang: Dash Two."

On her German TV show, Germany's Next Top Model
Klum said: "As the Dash Two watches over the main jet, Henry is supposed to watch over his older sister."


What is she talking about? Is she a complete twit or is that some legitimate reference that I have never heard of?

[GrummanFan]

A quick Googling resulted in this:

Dash Two: The second plane in a two-or-more aircraft formation; the wingman.

[mirrodie]

....I'd found the same result but, perhaps more to the point of my original post, is this a reference that is actually used regularly?

Has anyone else in the field actually used this reference?

[moose135]

....I'd found the same result but, perhaps more to the point of my original post, is this a reference that is actually used regularly?

Has anyone else in the field actually used this reference?

Not that I have a ton of formation experience, but I've scared myself a time or two...I've never heard it spoken that way. Perhaps in a flight plan, you might see it written as "Hang 51-2" ("Hang" being the actual call sign we used for T-38 two-ship formation flights at Columbus AFB) but we would never actually use the phrase "Dash 2" to refer to the wingman, he was simply "Two".

Which reminds me of a couple of old sayings we had about flying formation - The wingman has only two responsibilities - be there, and sound cool on the radio. And the only two things the wingman should say on the radio is "Two" and "Lead, you're on fire".