Airline registration question
 

Hi all,

This question might sound a bit strange, but I personally do not know the answer to it and hoping a few of you on here will.

My question is, why is it that some airlines do not have their aircraft registration under their left wing. For example Continental airlines of the US and Lufthansa of Germany do not have their registration under their left wing.

And as I live under BHX's flight path, when spotting I am unable to get the registration of these particular aircraft, due to them not having a registration under their left wing.

Just wondered why this is??

If anyone know's please reply, It would be nice to know why.

Many thanks in advance,

Cheers. :ok: :ok:

National regulations I think - I don't think any US or German airliners have their id under the wing. There may be others, but those are the 2 most well known.

I don't know about other countries rules, but US registered aircraft must have the registration number on each side of the aircraft in 12 inch tall numbers/letters.

I think you mean UK there,although there do seem to be rule breakers.

There are some US ones which seem to be no more than 12mm!

As previously mentioned, its all to do with the Regulations of the Country they are registered in. The US & German Authorities don't require the reg' to be carried under the wings whilst, for example, the CAA in the UK do for all G- reg'd aircraft. However, the CAA does occasionally allow special dispensation from this rule, mainly for aircraft that are painted in Military colour schemes but are on the Civil register.

FC

Thanks guys for the replies.

Cheers. :ok: :ok:

And now for the original legaleze...

The applicable German regulation is the Luftverkehrszulassungsordnung, LuftVZO. Anlage 1 zu § 14 Abs. 1 and § 19 Abs.1 states [my translation]:


3. (1) Aeroplanes, rotary wing aircraft and motorgliders carry the Letter D and the registration on both sides of the fuselage (see pattern 1) or on both sides of the vertical tail (see pattern 6a and 7a). Aeroplanes up to 5.7 t MTOW in addition carry the letter D and the registration on the lower side of the left wing.

[...]

4. (3) The height of the letters must be a minimum of [...]
on the fuselage: 30 cm,
on the wings: 50 cm

On a similar subject:

III. 1. (1.) Aeroplanes, airships, motorgliders and sailplanes carry the federal flag in colour paint on both sides of the empennage if possible in the upper half, rotary wing aircraft on both sides of the fuselage behind the registration markings.

Now take a look at the current Lufthansa livery. See, the flag is not on the empennage. It's on the fuselage. How did they do that?! The LBA issued exemptions to III. 1. (1.) when LH introduced the livery. Not one exemption for the whole fleet, but an individual one for every aircraft when it was re-sprayed...

Out tax Deutschmarks (or Euros) at work... :D