Military Aircraft Regs...'nother rookie question...

**Planesntrains** · 2009-04-09, 02:19 PM

Still learning here, so forgive me. But...how do you figure a registration off a US mil aircraft? I know some, especially USMC, the entire number is written out. But like this...

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php? ... 80&nseq=20
Tail reads only 6767, so how do you get to it's registration of 166767 from that?

Or this...
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php? ... 57&nseq=36
Tail reads on 44131, but reg is 04-4131.

Any help??

**USAF Pilot 07** · 2009-04-09, 02:51 PM

Can't speak for the Navy, but for the Air Force I believe the first two numbers indicate the year the aircraft was built, and the last 3 or 4 are its actual registration...

So like when we go to step, we will get a tail number (usually our "dispatcher" will just say like 581 on Echo), and then we'll get on the bus to row Echo and look for the aircraft tail with last 3 of 581. The whole serial number usually ends up being something like AF98-0581, meaning the aircraft was built in 1998 and was the 581st of its type built....

I'm not a huge registration "freak" so I don't even know if this is 100% true, or only true for certain aircraft, but at least it's my understanding of it.

**MarkLawrence** · 2009-04-09, 03:27 PM

When I had the same problem finding them, Moose gave out some great resources - they are in this thread - they help immensely when I'm looking for military stuff.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12777

**moose135** · 2009-04-09, 04:57 PM

The USAF uses a serial number which consists of 2 numbers, a dash, and then 4 (normally) numbers. The first two numbers indicate the fiscal year in which the aircraft was ordered, and the last four are the sequence in which the aircraft was ordered in that fiscal year. In your C-17 example, 04-4131 was ordered in FY 2004, and 4131 is its sequence (that doesn't mean there were over 4,000 aircraft ordered in FY04, as they reserve blocks of numbers for different aircraft, and there are gaps in those numbers).

There are a number of different ways you will see this marked on USAF aircraft these days (it's changed a little over the years as the old Major Commands dissolved and merged...)

The old "TAC" standard, which you still see on many aircraft, looks like this:

A large 2 letter tail code indicating the wing the aircraft is assigned to. In this case, it's the Connecticut ANG, although some of the codes can be a little obscure - "FF" is the code for the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley ("First Fighters") and "FT" is used by the 23rd Fighter Group at Pope AFB, as they are the descendants of the 23rd which took over the mission of the "Flying Tigers" of the AVG in WW2. You can find a list of tail codes here: http://www.military.cz/usa/air/air_acce ... il_cod.htm

The tail number block consists of a small "AF" and the FY number, and the larger 3 digit number is the last 3 of the sequence number. Occasionally, I've seen that as a 4 digit number, that usually happens when there are two aircraft with similar numbers: 04-0123 and 04-5123.

The other common type of tail codes you will see are like your C-17 example, or this KC-135:

It consists of the last digit of the FY date, and the 4-digit sequence number, in this case it's 58-0115. The USAF FY serial number standards go back to 1921, when it replaced the original method of sequential numbers without breaks for each year. That old system started with Aircraft #1, the Wright Model A, which now is on display at the Smithsonian.

One common variation you will see is something like this:

It's painted as the Wing Commander's aircraft from the 14th Flying Training Wing at Columbus AFB (where I spent a delightful year in pilot training!) In this case, the actual serial number is in small type at the bottom of the tail.

The US Navy and Marine Corp use a "Bureau Number" (BuNo) to designate each aircraft - it's a sequential number - this is the third sequence of numbers, and dates back to WW2, where it started with 00001, and now has grown to 6 digits, and has recently exceeded 168000. The USN and USMC also use a 3 digit "side number" on aircraft when assigned to a carrier air wing. The first digit indicates aircraft type and the last two are sequential within the squadron. The side numbers are not usually connected to the BuNo. On our favorite Tomcat, "Felix 101", the "101" indicates it is the squadron commander's aircraft:

On "Felix 100", the number indicates it is the CAG (Commander of Air Group) aircraft:

The US Army uses a system similar to the USAF, but generally uses a 5 digit sequence number after the FY year code. The US Coast Guard uses a 4 digit serial number.

As Mark said, the links on the earlier thread will give you some very good information tracking down serial numbers, they are where I go when I need to figure out a number. I hope I didn't bore you with the explanations above, but with a little background on how the numbers appear and what they mean, it makes it easier to track down.