Originally Posted by
tubby linton
I disagree wholeheartedly with your first two paragraphs, especially with regard to the UK registers. Your notion is that of an amateur description.It also does not conform with the code used on flightplans
On the contrary, it conforms exactly to the code used on flightplans.
A Boeing 707-338C (for example those still flying with Omega Air) would be flightplanned as "B703", which decodes as "Boeing 707-300". ATC couldn't care less that "38" is Qantas's customer code, and I'd hardly describe them as "amateurs".
Likewise, any airline's 747-400s (say BA's 747-436s or Singapore's 747-412Fs) would be flightplanned as "B744" ("Boeing 747-400").
See
https://www.icao.int/publications/do...s/default.aspx