Aircraft Registrations

I have discovered a semi-professional book in the university library published by the Aviation Historical Society of New Zealand that lists every aircraft registration in this country up till the date of publication, which was about 1972.

The first registrations all began with G-NZ**, and there were just 32 of these.

In 1929 they changed to the current ZK-*** registration system, and at the same time they also allocated for ZL-*** for overflow (which has not yet been needed but we cannot be too far away I suppose) and they also allocated this strange one – ZM-***

ZM-*** was allocated just for Flying Fleas. It says that the type were not issued Certificates of Airworthiness, but could be registered in this special category so that they could fly within a 3 mile radius of an aerodrome, as they were classed as experimental aircraft. Three were registered in this way, each with a different engine type.

So that is the NZ story then I guess.

I beleive the marks set out in 1919 were based on the then international shipping morse radio callsigns? The first ones were issued 1919 and then in 1929 another conference almost rewrote the system.

HB-SEX is an Erla 5B, a pre-war German light aeroplane, I seem to recall. Remember seeing it at Birrfeld, Switzerland, a few years back, still airworthy, though the engine is not original.
BTW, VP-Bxx is not Bahamas, but Bermuda, just nit-picking…

nope – it’s German

It looks like a Turbulent, but I’m not entirely sure…

Okay

how about this one ?

and what type is it ? 😀

Martin

Some former British colonies or current members of the Commonwealth were issued registrations beginning with the letter V, as in Australia (VH), India (VT) and the Bahamas (VP-BXX). Most of the early issues had prefixes linked to the name of the country but as time moved on and the more obvious letter combinations were used up, newly independent countries (eg – former African colonies) found themselves being issued with unusal combinations. This trend has continued in recent times with the emergence of new European states following the disollution of the USSR and Yugoslavia.

The American “N” numbers appear to have ben allocated without any reference to national identity.

There was a picture here in the UK of G-SEXI (?) and G-AIDS in the same parking line. How times changed from when G-AIDS was registered…
Someone has registered G-FUKM and FCUK in this country… Not too impressed witht he first one personally.
G-DAIR was reregistered from G-BURK as the pilot was apparently getting a bit tired of the jibes…

I remember sometime in the 1980’s it was on the TV news that the ZK register had gotten up to ZK-SEX, and it was issued to a lucky owner of a Cessna 172 (I think), so the NZ authorities were not so prudish.

I often think how lucky it was that Sir Tim Wallis’s Spitfire wasn’t another in 453 Sqn. It is marked with the codes FU-P, but there is at least one photo I’ve seen of it during the war sitting with several other squadron members, including ‘K’ and ‘C’ !!! 😮 😮 😀 😀

The UK also used K-100 to K-175 from April 1919 to July 1919 when the G-EAAA block was established as the way forward.
G-F was used for lighter than air aircraft.
G-G was used in 1937 for gliders too (G-GAAA to G-GAAE issued)
The UK also decided not to use the Q letter and drop the G-F series when they went to the G-AAAA series and they would not issue the “rude ones” e.g. G-ASEX and G-ARSE.

One thing I noted yesterday, the ShortsBelfast operated in Australia by Heavylift Cargo of Brisbane is in fact registered in Sierra Leone. There’s an interesting one. The same company has recently registered a Boeing 727-51C in Sierra Leone too for Trans-Tasman operations. So the Aussies obviously allow this to happen all right.

Might it be like the ‘flag of convenience’ for dodgy oil tankers and the like?
Certain countries have less stringent regulations than others and are quite happy to (seemingly) accept money for vessels to be registered there and not to examine the documentation too closely; they can then employ third-world crews on a real pitance a day. You then generally hear about them when they have run ashore from either poor navigation or failed engines and gushing their content everywhere, or that they sank without trace and gone unreported for several weeks.
While I am not saying that this is the case with aircraft it does make you think. – Nermal

Thanks guys for this interesting info.

I can see some correlation between some country codes, G (for Great Britain), D (for Deutchland), etc. But why do some have no connection with the country, like ZK for New Zealand, VH for Aussie, or OO for Belgium? Any ides of what is behind the system?

As far as new types on the register, I assume this is why the Russian rebuilt Polikarpovs for the AFC in NZ were given a CofA in the USA before bringing them here to NZ. Perhaps it was easier to pass their CofA and more universally accepted when they were sold on?

One thing I noted yesterday, the ShortsBelfast operated in Australia by Heavylift Cargo of Brisbane is in fact registered in Sierra Leone. There’s an interesting one. The same company has recently registered a Boeing 727-51C in Sierra Leone too for Trans-Tasman operations. So the Aussies obviously allow this to happen all right.

Canada was G-CAAA – G-CAXP from 1920 to 1928, with goverment/military aircraft being in the G-CYxx range. Then it changed to CF-xxx until 1974 and C-xxxx thereafter.
India used G-IAAA – G-IAAZ, probably until 1929 and VT-xxx from then on.
Australia was G-AUAA – G-AUZZ (although most of the later registrations would have been in the new VH-xxx range) until 1929.
New Zealand used G-NZAA – G-NZAZ, and G-NZEA – G-NZEF before going over to ZK-xxx in 1929.
South Africa used G-UAAA – G-UABD, but these were all reregistered retrospectively in the ZS-xxx range (ZS-AAA onwards) from 1929.

Flood.™

I think I’ve recently learnt something about the British reg system. I intended to see if I could find a bit more (and confirmation) before I posted but it’s late, and ale is involved again…
The original G-Exxx series appeared to be for English (or more likely GB) registrations and as we had an empire, the dominions had their own ranges. For example, G-Cxxx for Canada. I’ve only worked this out in the last month or so, and I haven’t a clue where, possibly Old Warden. Presumably it changed at the time we started again at G-AAAA.
If everybody already knew, sorry, I didn’t.

The initial national letters were issued in 1919. Since then, some have changed significantly. Some countries have also changed the presentation of their registrations too. For example, Japan used to be J followed by four letters. Since WW2 it has been JA followed by numbers. Up until the 1930s, German aircraft were D followed by numerals. It was later changed to D followed by four letters.

Hmm, just remembered that some of BA’s Concordes did have a sort of ‘dual citizenship’ for a while. They operated flights together with Braniff for a while, and the aircraft were ‘re-registered’ every time they came through Washington, where a Braniff crew would take over and fly the aircraft to Dallas. The reverse operation took place on the flight back.

The other thing, can an aircraft be registered in two places at once? For example if a warbirds owner lived in one country for six months of the year (say NZ) and another the other six months (say the UK), and he took his warbird with him for each country’s airshow season – does he have to continually re-register it, or can it have dual citizenship? Or would it simply fly under another country’s codes (like they do with shipping?)

To answer this question, no, an aircraft cannot have ‘dual citizenship’. The C of A (Certificate of Airworthiness) is issued by a national Aviation Authority (AA) and you cannot have two CofAs. The registration is linked to the issueing authority. Now basically you cannot restrict an aircraft with for example a ‘N-‘ registration to that specific country, sorta limits the use of the aircraft! But when you base an aircraft in another country than the one it is registered in, the local AA can impose rules. This is not always possible, but it usually occurs when the owner is locally licensed and based. The reasoning behind this is that the AA is responsible for maintaining standards and upholding regulations and such, but if everyone starts flying aircraft registered abroad they are unable to check that these aircraft comply with local regulations. This may not be a problem with for example an N-registered aircraft flying in the UK, but it could also be a Zambia-registered one or something else from darkest Africa.

These limiting ‘rules’ differ for each country. And in some cases it is almost not possible to register for example a P-51 in Switzerland. Until a few years ago the Dutch AA (they probably still do) would view a B-25 as a new type since there has never been a civil B-25 on the Dutch register. Trying to get a Dutch CofA for a B-25 would then mean that you would have to go through the whole certification process as if it was a new design (same as when you try to get a new Boeing design on the US register). One way around this is to get an AA to certify an aircraft based on a foreign certification, but not every AA will do this (also dependent on the type). Another way is the ‘experimental’ CofA that some AAs have (Permit to Fly in the UK). Some AAs will let you register anything with wings on such a certificate but usually there is a complexity/weigth limit for these certifications too.

Hope all this still makes sense :rolleyes:

Veeeeeery Nice

Daz

thank you for the flowers….

one more ?

Martin 😀

For someone who’s not fallen in love with Mustangs and favours its better-looking counterpart (:D), I’d have to say that’s one of the best Mustang shots I’ve seen! 🙂