The Right SLUF: What To Know About The Stubby A-7 Corsair II US Cold War Plane

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” as the proverb goes, or as Kinky Friedman rephrased it, “Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.” Case in point: the Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) Corsair II light-attack aircraft of the Cold War era. Its affectionate nickname was “SLUF,” which stood for “Short Little Ugly Fellow” in polite company but in reality stood for “Short Little Ugly F*ck*r” (analogous to how the B-52 Stratofortress was nicknamed the “BUFF” as in “Big Ugly Fat Fellow/F*ck*r”).