Wed, Apr 01, 2015
Letter To The Company Says That ‘Cherokee’, ‘Apache’, ‘Seminole’, Others Are Demeaning
ANN’s April 1 “April Fools” Special Edition
A group of Democratic United States Senators has written a letter to Piper president and CEO Simon Caldecott urging him to re-brand many of the company’s iconic airplanes because the names are “demeaning" to Native Americans.
The letter, dated April 1, is similar to one sent to the NFL last summer in an attempt to convince Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to change the name of that franchise.
In the letter, the Senators say that names like “Apache”, “Cherokee”, and “Seminole” are an insult to Native Americans, and the company should immediately re-brand the airplanes. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that the company has already obviously seen the error of its ways. “They’ve got the “M” series, so they moved away from the Native names at some point in the past. But I’m still looking into that as well. Calling airplanes “M” might be demeaning to delicious chocolate candies that don’t melt in your hand, and that could be damaging to children everywhere.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein said that the company should use names that could not possibly be offensive to anyone. “They’re birds, so why not change “Cherokee” to “Chickadee”, “Seminole” to “Swallow”, and “Apache” to …. well … they’ve got creative marketing people. They can come up with something.”
Caldecott said that he has no intention of suggesting that the iconic Piper airplanes be renamed. “It wouldn’t make a spit in the ocean’s difference anyway. Pilots would still call a Cherokee a Cherokee, an Aztec an Aztec, a Seminole a Seminole. There are no Native groups banging at the door demanding that we change the name. And speaking of which, we’re considering a copyright infringement patent against Boeing over the “Apache”. We had that one long before they built that helicopter.”
Senate Republicans said they did not agree with the letter in the strongest possible terms, but they’d probably capitulate if it came up for a vote.
More News
Runway Lead-in Light System Runway Lead-in Light System Consists of one or more series of flashing lights installed at or near ground level that provides positive visual guidance a>[...]
Aero Linx: Aviation Without Borders Aviation Without Borders uses its aviation expertise, contacts and partnerships to enable support for children and their families – at hom>[...]
Dave Juwel's Aviation Marketing Stories ITBOA BNITBOB ... what does that mean? It's not gibberish, it's a lengthy acronym for "In The Business Of Aviation ... But Not In The Busine>[...]
From 2010 (YouTube Version): Yeah.... This IS A Really Cool Job When ANN's Nathan Cremisino took over the lead of our Aero-TV teams, he knew he was in for some extra work and a lot>[...]
Also: Junkers A50 Heritage, Montaer Grows, Dynon-Advance Flight Systems, Vans' Latest Officially, the Carbon Cub UL and Rotax 916 iS is now in its 'market survey development phase'>[...]
ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.24.24): Runway Lead-in Light System
See All