View Full Version : November...
TrueNorth
18th Jan 2001, 20:20
Hello all,
Most aircraft regs. are fairly sensible (C-, F-, D-, G- for Canada, France, Deutschland, Great Britain).
Does anyone know the reason behind US-registered aircraft starting with N?
airsmiles
19th Jan 2001, 02:01
Good question, especially as they used to use NC and NX as well before WW2.
Anyone have any idea ?
TrueNorth
19th Jan 2001, 02:45
I think the X might refer to "Experimental" (eg. Spirit of St. Louis - not a production aircraft).
Perhaps C was the opposite ("Commercial"?).
Still in the dark about N, though...
Actuals
19th Jan 2001, 03:44
North America perhaps ?
Shanwick Shanwick
19th Jan 2001, 03:45
N = North America
pigboat
19th Jan 2001, 08:13
Trivia tidbit: prior to 1930, Canadian aircraft carried the British registration G, followed by the letter C for Canada and three more letters, eg G-CASK. Before Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, their aircraft were registered VO, eg VO-ABN.
foghorn
19th Jan 2001, 17:02
Based on the ITU telegraphy codes. Holland gets PH-, I assume from Philips the electronics company!
Most Commonwealth countries are Vx- or Zx-, e.g. South Africa ZS-KBK, UK and Canada are the only exceptions that spring to mind.
[This message has been edited by foghorn (edited 19 January 2001).]
TrueNorth
19th Jan 2001, 21:34
NORTH AMERICA?!
As a Canadian, I find that a bit presumptuous.
pigboat - do you think the fact that most Canadian regs start with G (C-G***) is a hangover from the days when we had UK regs?
Code Blue
20th Jan 2001, 04:53
pigboat:
I thought that after 1930 the Canadian regs started CF-
PS: I also thought Canada joined Newfoundland ;)
------------------
-.-- --.- -..-
pigboat
20th Jan 2001, 07:17
True North, originally when they were handing out the country codes Canada was given C, followed by a four letter suffix beginning with F or G. Since there weren't very many aircraft to register back then, the powers that be simply used CF-XXX. The reason it became C-FXXX or C-GXXX was that about 1970 or so, since there are only about ten thousand combinations of CF-XXX and this combination was becoming saturated, they decided to use the original allocation.
Code Blue, right on, buddy! ;) BTW, if they think there's lots of snow in YT this year, I landed on 34 in YT on June 6 1974, and after the usual ATIS blather they threw out this one: Runway ploughed full length, 100 feet wide, snow windrows thirty inches high inside the lights.