September 16, 2007 at 2:54 am
This crossed my mind more than once, and let’s try to keep it at least a bit decent.
Is there a list of registrations which must absolutely not be issued, and who keeps track? Regs can form words of a peculiar nature : they can be insulting in other languages, or obscene. Is there a department run by linguïsts somewhere which keeps an eye on regs which are, ummm, awkward? For instance, the Dutch registration ‘Papa Hotel – Lima Uniform Lima’ would be unthinkable in Holland, it would translate into the British registration as ‘Golf – Charlie Oscar Charlie Kilo’.
Think of the multitude of languages and dialects which are spoken around the world. It would be quite a task to check if a proposed registration forms a word that can offend anyone, somewhere, somehow.
I worked in the industry for 24 years and I’ve never seen a really inappropriate registration for myself. Did any of you ever see one that made you rise an eyebrow?
To start with, I found this one -and I was really amazed: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1051934/M/
‘Kilo Uniform Tango’ is the Dutch slang word for, eh, an -originally- hairy bit of the adult female lower body.
Tillerman.
By: cloud_9 - 19th September 2007 at 05:28
This crossed my mind more than once, and let’s try to keep it at least a bit decent.
Is there a list of registrations which must absolutely not be issued, and who keeps track?
I would imagine that there is a list somewhere that has the details of registrations that must not be used…would be quite amusing to find ones that have been ‘abused’…lol!
I would also imagine that it would be down to the authorities/governing bodies of each country (in the UK, that would be the Civil Aviation Authority, CAA) as each aircraft has to been registered with them on the G-INFO database.
By: AvgasDinosaur - 17th September 2007 at 13:21
The Italian register lends itself to this I-LOVE, I-LUST etc etc
I recall BOAC changing the Britannia G-ANBG to G-APLL because of the No Bloody Good connotation.
Be lucky
David