AIRCRAFT REGISTRATION: HOW IS IT DONE?

[Guest]

Hi friends,Can you tell me how airlines get their registration?For example, Air India has VT-ESM, VT-ESN etc on its 747-400s, VT-??? on her 747-300 Combi's, VT-??? (VT-EBN for instance) on her 747-200s, VT-RGI (on her A310s) etc.What does VT stand for and what do the three letters following the hyphen stand for? (ESM, EBN for instance.)Similarly, Cathay has B-HOP, B-HOY to name a few. Thanks for your info.Dr. Jinesh ThomasResident in Internal MedicineGauhati Medical CollegeINDIA.

[Misha_K 0]

Depends on the country and then on the airline. The stuff before the dash is the country code obviously. The first letter in most European countries specifies the general type of aircraft. E.g. in Germany, the letter A after the dash denotes an airliner. The rest is up to the airline and the specific national aircraft registration agency. I believe certain codes can be reserved. E.g. All Boeing types in the Lufthansa fleet start with D-AB__, all Airbuses with D-AI__. It gets even more specific. All 747-400s start with either D-ABV_ or D-ABT_. The last letter is assigned alphabetically upon delivery. Misha

[Guest]

Thanks Misha.Jinesh

[Guest P3_Super_Bee]

Here's the way the USA does it. N-Numbers consist of a series of alphanumeric characters. U.S. registration numbers may not exceed five (5) characters in addition to the standard U.S. registration prefix letter "N". These characters may be one (1) to five (5) numbers (eg., N12345), one (1) to four (4) numbers and one (1) suffix letter (ex. - N1234Z), or one (1) to three (3) numbers and two (2) suffix letters (N123AZ). To avoid confusion with the numbers one and zero, the letters "I" and "O" may not be used.An N-Number may not begin with zero. The first zero in a number must be preceded by at least one of the numbers one (1) through nine (9). For example, N01Z is not valid.Registration numbers N1 through N99 are strictly reserved for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) internal use.The FAA no longer issues numbers beginning with "NC", "NX", "NR", or "NL". On some older aircraft, these numbers may be displayed in accordance with FAR 45.22. :-outtahttp://publish.hometown.aol.com/p3superb/images/675-2fs.jpg

[Guest]

hello docas u now know the first part goes by the ICAO assigned call sign to a country... in the later part ,thats after country specific, is noramlly applied for by the operator with its local authority,and if the combination of alphabets and numbers is available.it is allotted!!eg i was in lci ,and one of r planes was vt-lci,many time the last are initials of the owner of the plane,specially in the business aviation sector ,or maybe company names in abbriviated form ...and there are plenty examples like that in india itself ..bi bi kunal

[Guest]

And in the Great White North we use C as the first letter or country identifier code. This is followed by either a F,G or I. The G designation is more common nowadays as the F was used on older aircraft and is no longer available for use, even though some aircraft still have it. A Grandfather clause kind of. And the I is only used for ultralights.Examples..CF-AOAC-GEYWC-IIOUFor more info on what country uses what, try the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) at http://www.icao.int/. There should be plenty of info there about registrations etc.CF-AOAKyle

[Guest]

Thanks everybody. That was a terrific lot of wonderful info.Once again thank you all very much.Jinesh.