A station hack (
British English
British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...
) or squadron hack (
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...
), is a utility aircraft assigned to an air station or squadron (that normally flies another type of aircraft in its role), and utilised for run-of-the-mill activities, including delivering to, or collecting from, other airfields personnel, spare parts, equipment, or documents; activities that would not be considered worthy of the tactical, strategic, or larger transport aeroplanes that might be operated from the same air station. Often these would be "war weary" or otherwise obsolete aircraft no longer suitable for combat operations.
The term is derived from the equestrian term for a
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...
used by competitive riders for everyday, run-of-the-mill riding, as opposed to those used for competitive riding.
See also
*
Assembly ship
An assembly ship (also known as a formation ship or Judas goat) was a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber (usually an older model) that was stripped down of its armaments and given extra flares, navigational equipment ...
References
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Royal Air Force
Military slang and jargon