Military Serial numbers?

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Magnum
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Military Serial numbers?

Post by Magnum »

Are aircraft serial numbers ever re-used?

I have a Varsity listed as WJ682 but it is showing on UK serials as a Canberra!
petet16
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by petet16 »

Not to my knowledge.
petet16
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by petet16 »

Varsity T1's start in the WL range, if that's any help.
AJW
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by AJW »

A serial number will NEVER be re used . It is totally unique to each specific aircraft; much the same as a chassis number on a car, however a registration number may be re used.

I have been researching some of the Dakotas my grandfather flew and there are one or two which have had the registration used on two different aircraft.
Magnum
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by Magnum »

The aircraft in question was being used by No. 2 Air Navigation School in January 1960. All the other serials check out ok for the same period.
Gsxr600
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by Gsxr600 »

So what happens when they reach ZZ999 which isn't that far off I don't think?
Magnum
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by Magnum »

Gsxr600 wrote:So what happens when they reach ZZ999 which isn't that far off I don't think?
There are lots of letters that have never been used so they should be ok for a while yet.
Rover75
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by Rover75 »

What is the latest serial number?
Gsxr600
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by Gsxr600 »

Not sure what the very last one used is, but one of the Voyagers which entered service recently is ZZ336. As Magnum says that leaves 663 registration numbers and at the rate new planes are procured these days that should keep them going for many years!
Magnum
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by Magnum »

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1103
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by 1103 »

AJW wrote:A serial number will NEVER be re used . It is totally unique to each specific aircraft; much the same as a chassis number on a car, however a registration number may be re used.

I have been researching some of the Dakotas my grandfather flew and there are one or two which have had the registration used on two different aircraft.
A few years ago I was reading a book about the Valletta and it mention the regular flights during the cold war between West Germany and Berlin down the Berlin Corridor. The Russians insisted on having advance notice of which particular a/c would do a particular flight. Due to a/c unserviceability this couldn't be predicted with any degree of accuracy so to overcome this problem with the Russians what the RAF did was to nominate a particular Valletta to a particular service, as required, but if that a/c was not available they would dope a piece of fabric over the operating a/c's serial number and paint on the fabric the serial number of the nominated a/c.

Simples

Paul
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XR807
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Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by XR807 »

Rich

I think the Varsity serial must be an error as WJ682 was only ever worn on a Canberra. There is a batch of WJ prefixed Varsity serials which run from WJ886 - WJ950.

Mark
Magnum wrote:Are aircraft serial numbers ever re-used?

I have a Varsity listed as WJ682 but it is showing on UK serials as a Canberra!
Magnum
Posts: 270
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Location: Wantage

Re: Military Serial numbers?

Post by Magnum »

1103 wrote: A few years ago I was reading a book about the Valletta and it mention the regular flights during the cold war between West Germany and Berlin down the Berlin Corridor. The Russians insisted on having advance notice of which particular a/c would do a particular flight. Due to a/c unserviceability this couldn't be predicted with any degree of accuracy so to overcome this problem with the Russians what the RAF did was to nominate a particular Valletta to a particular service, as required, but if that a/c was not available they would dope a piece of fabric over the operating a/c's serial number and paint on the fabric the serial number of the nominated a/c.

Simples

Paul
The RAF would also crew civilian aircraft along the Berlin corridor.
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