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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1542.PDF
21 October 1955 657 A serial of 1913-14, on a B.E.2a of No. 3 Sqn., Royal Flying Corps. A 1912-1955 History By R. C. STURTIVANT British Military Serial Numbers THE first practical use of military aircraft in this country wasin 1912 by the British Army at Farnborough and SalisburyPlain, and by the Naval School at Eastchurch. As a means of identification, these machines carried letter/number markingson their rudders. Those built at the Royal Aircraft Factory bore markings such as B.E.I, F.E.2, and S.E.I, whilst privately con-structed aircraft carried such markings as B.3, F.4, and T.4. The Factory-type markings indicated the type of aircraft; B.E. wasBleriot Experimental; F.E., Farman Experimental; and S.E., Santos Dumont Experimental. These markings later formed thebasis of the Factory system of type numbering. The exact significance of the B and F serials is unknown, butthe following examples have been traced: B.2, B.3 (Breguet bi- plane), B.4 (Nieuport monoplane), B.6 (two-seater monoplane),F.I, F.4 (biplane), F.5 (biplane), F.7 (Bristol biplane), and F.8 (Bristol biplane). The T series appears to have been used onlyby the Naval School at Eastchurch, and included T.I (biplane), T.2 (biplane), T.3 (Short triple twin), T.4 (Short triple tractor)and T.5 (Short tractor hydro-aeroplane). In the summer of 1912, the Military Aeroplane Trials wereheld at Larkhill, and each of the 32 competing aircraft carried its competition entry number. This straightforward numberingsystem was found to be more satisfactory, and on September 1st, 1912, a similar method was adopted by the Royal Flying Corps,as the military air services had become by then. Serial numbers, to be painted on the rudder, were allotted to all military aircraftby a central authority. Under the first allocation, the Naval Wing (later known as the Royal Naval Air Service) received for its usenumbers 1-200, the Military Wing numbers 201-400, and the Central Flying School at Upavon numbers 401-500. It was pos-sible, therefore, for a prototype to have a higher serial number than a production model that went to a different branch of theServices. Production B.E.2as, for instance, included 47, 49, 50, 51 and 52, although the prototype B.E.2 was number 202. The advent of war meant a much greater turnover of newserials, and this was at first met by allocating larger blocks to each Service. The number 10,000 was soon reached, however, thisbeing allocated to a Blackburn-built B.E.2c, one of a batch num- bered 9951-10,000 inclusive. This was the only serial ever issuedcontaining more than four digits. Later blocks allotted for Naval use were 801-2,000, 3,001-3,999 and 8,001-10,000. At this stage it was decided that future serials would be issuedunder two classifications. First, the main series—to be used on both prototypes and production aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps—was the contemporary type of serial with the addition of a prefix letter. A1-A9999 inclusive was followed by B1-B9999, thenC1-C9999, etc. Secondly, there was a Naval series with N pre- fixed, this being further sub-divided as follows: —N1-499: Prototype seaplanes, flying-boats, and shipboard aircraft. N500-999: Prototype landplanes.N1000-2999: Production seaplanes and small flying-boats. N3000-3999: Production landplanes.N4000-4999 : Production large flying-boats. N5000-8999: Production landplanes.N9000-9499: Production seaplanes. N95 00-9999 : Post-war production aircraft, all categories.Not all these serials were actually used. The first block pro- gressed only to N255 (a Parnall Peto), and the second blockprobably never passed N546 (the Wight Quadruplane). The series N3000-3999 seems to have been little used, the only knownexamples being N3004 and N3010, both Henri Farmans. Later, a series beginning the X.I was introduced for experimental R.F.C.types. Little is known of this series, which probably never passed X25 (the Boulton and Paul P.6).When the war ended, serials in the main series had been allocated as far as the mid-Js. Prefix letter I was not used, andletter G was used only for a special series started late in the war for captured German aircraft. This progressed to around the G150mark. Many of the Hs and most of the Js up to J6900 were never actually used, owing to cancellation of contracts at the cessationof hostilities. The re-birth of civil aviation, during Easter 1919, necessitatedsome form of identification marking, and this was first met by allocating R.A.F.-type serial numbers commencing at K.100. Bythe time the system was changed under international agreement to the present type of civil registration marking, serials had beenallocated up to K.175. In view of this, the next series of R.A.F. numbers began, in 1927, with K1000, and no subsequent serialhas ever been issued with either more or less than five symbols. The Naval series, which was continued even after the RoyalNaval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps had combined on April 1st, 1918, to form the Royal Air Force, reached N9999about 1925, and was succeeded by the S series, commencing at S1000. This series was abandoned in 1932 at S.1859, and allBritish military serials since that date have been issued in the main series.The economies of the 1920s and early 1930s resulted in the rebuilding of many aircraft which would normally have beenscrapped. These retained their original serial numbers, but a letter R was added to the prefix letter. Two examples of this wereFairey IIIFs SR1171 and SR1174 of No. 45 Squadron. Coded N2 and Nl respectively, they were originally built for Naval use.The demand for serial numbers in the post-war period was very small. The J series was not depleted until 1927, and the K serieswas in use for a further eight years. The rearmament drive, how- ever, resulted in a big increase in turnover, and in the last fouryears of peace the L, N and P serials were exhausted. The Munich crisis also resulted in another innovation. It was realizedfrom past experience that an enemy could keep a check on our aircraft production figures if he obtained a sufficient number ofserials from aircraft shot down, and by other means. It was decided, therefore, that not all serial numbers would be used.Various systems of blocking out were at first tried. At one time, every fourth or fifth serial was omitted. Later, blocks of abouta dozen serials were separated by about half a dozen unused ones. Finally, however, a system was adopted whereby productionbatches of aircraft were given blocks of between 40 and 50 serials, each block being separated from the previous one by between 10and 15 unused serials. Typical of this system was a batch of Spitfire 22s serialled PK312-356, 369-412, 426-468, 481-525,539-582 and 594-635. Different production batches were separ- ated by blocking out a dozen or more serials, but prototypes weregiven odd serials in the middle of such blockings-out. Serial Z9999 was reached soon after the outbreak of war, andit was decided to continue with a similar system which, employing two letters and three numbers, began at AA100. In order to avoidconfusion, the letters C, G, I, O, Q, U and Y were not used. Exceptions were that the letter G was used as a second letter,and that the combination NC was employed. In the normal series of allocations the combinations DA, DB, EA, HA, HT, JE, JH, JJ,MR, NZ, SV, TN, TR, VE and VJ were not used. Pre-war civil aircraft impressed for the R.A.F. seem to have beenallotted serials in blocks on the same lines as production batches, blocking-out being used where necessary. The main impressmentblocks were, approximately, as follows: W5740-79, W6418-64, W7940-84, W9325-89, X5O51-5133, X9297-9450, Z7253-61,AV952-AW183, AX659-904, BB661-706, BB721-69, BB788-819, BB851-68, BD142-71, BK828-73, BS8O3-15, DG450-667, DR607-28, ES914-60, HK820-993, HM494-581 and NF747-73. Captured enemy aircraft were very often included in these blocks, as wereprototypes, and early war-time purchases from America. The only exceptions to the blocking-out system were Lease-Lend air-craft and machines built in the Dominions. Reserved for these were serials ET100-HD776, JS469-KT999 and SA100-SK999.In fact, these serials were not all required, the last to be used being KP328. The appearance of radar and other secret devices necessitated
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