In the Marvel universes, the Avengers' jets are Quinjets. What's the etymology of this name? Does this refer to someone in the universe? Or a comic book creator?
2 Answers
The etymology of the name of the legendary Avengers craft comes from its design specifications:
The quinjet first appeared in The Avengers #61 (February 1969) and was designed by the Wakanda Design Group, headed by the Black Panther, T'Challa. Each one is equipped with VTOL capability and five turbojet engines. A quinjet can reach Mach 2.1. Two highly specialized ultra-large Quinjets were used to transport various superheroes through space in the Infinity Crusade mini-series.
The five turbojet engines are the rationale for Quin-Jet.
- quint: [French quinte, from Old French, interval of a fifth (in music), feminine of quint, fifth, from Latin quntus; see penkwe in Indo-European roots.]
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1Doesn't the image indicate there are only 4 engines? (label in the bottom-right)– user1027Commented May 11, 2012 at 2:24
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3@Keen - going only off the design drawing, the afterburner would be #5 Commented May 11, 2012 at 5:06
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An afterburner is not a separate engine, it's part of the engine design used to drastically increase thrust at the cost of efficiency. There are five engines marked - four in the bottom right and one roughly top center. Only one engine is equipped with an afterburner.– T.J.L.Commented Sep 3, 2015 at 12:57
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2Canopy Eternal Release Handle -- Does that mean the canopy can never be reattached once it's eternally released? Commented Sep 3, 2015 at 13:01
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It's funny, I always thought it was "Queenjet" while watching the avengers animated series. Commented Mar 24, 2021 at 16:27
So has anyone else realize that the Quinjet name come from boat propulsion. HamiltonJet pioneered the commercial development of the modern waterjet system in the early 1950’s.
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5The name is similar, do you have any evidence at all that it is actually inspired by that? If so please edit it into your answer.– TheLethalCarrot ♦Commented Mar 24, 2021 at 14:16