Without going back to the archives (laziness) or looking at airliners.net...Wasn't the first HA 767 reg with a "-"?...or something else different about it? Walter DCA ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Ross" <damiross@earthlink.net> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2002 16:16 Subject: Re: United's flight number scheme (was Re: AC's 3xxx flight #s) > Here's the rules for creating US aircraft registrations. I know this isn't > directly related to airline flight numbers but it does make for interesting > reading. The letters "I" and "O" are not allowed in registrations. What is > interesting is that I didn't realize the aircraft category and the dash are > still legal to use in registrations, albeit they are mostly omitted). > > I got this from the landings.com web page - they also have the rules there > for German registrations. > > > Registration Rules > > These rules were written up by Andreas Gehrs-Pahl, schnars@ais.org. > US Registration numbers: Rules (see FAR 47.15(b)): The rules for > registration numbers of aircraft in the USA are: > Description: > > Form: N[c][-]n[n][n][X][X] > see : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 > > N (international prefix: USA) > C/L/R/X (Category, mostly omitted) > - (dash, mostly omitted) > digit (1 to 9) > digit (0 to 9 or nothing) > digit (0 to 9 or nothing) > character (0 to 9, A to H, J - N, P - Z or nothing) > character (0 to 9, A to H, J - N, P - Z or nothing) > min.: N1 > max.: NX-999ZZ > 1) International Prefix: > N (for USA) > > 2) Category: > Not part of the Registration nor the Prefix, but is sometimes displayed on > the aircraft (especially before 1950s): > C = Standard, > L = Limited, > R = Restricted, > X = eXperimental. > 3) Separator: > The dash (-) or a space ( ) as a Seperator between Prefix and Registration > is in most cases omitted. > > 4-8) Registration: > 1 to 5 characters, allowed are digits (0 - 9) and letters (A - H, J - N, P - > Z), exempt are I and O, to not be confused with the digits 1 or 0. The > registration can be split into two categories: > numeric: 1 to 5 digits (N1 to N99999) > alphanumeric: (here I have to use examples to be 100% clear): > 1A - 9999A (9999 registrations) > ... > 1Z - 9999Z (for all 24 allowed characters) > and > 1AA - 999AA (999 registrations) > ... > 1ZZ - 999ZZ (for all 24*24 allowed combinations) > Summary: N plus 1 to 5 characters (usually without a dash '-', sometimes > with a category letter; first character is always a digit from 1 to 9; can > be followed by up to 4 more digits and can end with up to 2 letters, but > letters can not be followed by digits; the characters I and O are not > allowed; no other rules exist, concerning: > military/government ownership, > special purpose/prototype/evaluation, > aircraft type, or > location. > Remarks: A total of 99,999 + 9999 * 24 + 999 * 24 * 24 = 915,399 aircraft > could be registered at any given time. (The 1990/91 FAA database contains > about 300,000 registrations). NASA owned aircraft have mostly registrations > of the form NxxxNA, were xxx is a number from 1 to 999. This is not a rule, > and this is not a NASA specific registration form. Government owned special > purpose aircraft (like CIA operated U-2s) sometimes use 'fake' > registrations, which are not in the register, or fly without any > registrations. Without a civil registration, it is difficult to get > overflight or landing rights from any other country. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Matthew Montano" <mmontano@direct.ca> > To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> > Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2002 10:23 > Subject: Re: [AIRLINE] United's flight number scheme (was Re: AC's 3xxx > flight #s) > > > Another curious question, though I have no direct evidence of it myself. Are > there any flight numbers that due to linguistic reasons are not used? For > example manufacturers of products with serial numbers with either use 1's or > I's, but never both (same goes with O's and 0's.) > > Matthew > > -----Original Message----- > From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of > Michael C. Berch > Sent: January 25, 2002 12:31 PM > To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU > Subject: United's flight number scheme (was Re: AC's 3xxx flight #s) > > > As of a year or two ago, United's scheme was approximately this: > > UA1-UA2 Round-the-world flights (gone now?) > UA3-UA799 General domestic and Canada > flights > UA800-899 Pacific flights (incl. US > continuation segments) > UA900-999 Atlantic flights (incl. US > continuation segments) > UA1000-1999 General domestic and Canada flights > UA2000-2999 Shuttle by United (gone now) > UA3000-3999 Code shares on other carriers > UA4000-6999 United Express (operated by > contractors) > UA7000-7999 Unused? Charters? Cargo? > UA8000-8999 Reserved for ATC renumbering* > UA9000-9999 Special flights - charters, extra > "passenger > protection" sections, > delivery and > repositioning flights, etc. > > Normally even numbers are eastbound, odd are westbound. > > * When flights with a similar or the same number would overlap in an ATC > sector, one of the flights is renumbered, usually flight number + > 8000. For example, let's say UA921 operates LHR-ORD-LAX (with a change > of equipment in ORD). If the inbound from London is seriously delayed, UA > may dispatch the domestic continuation (most of whose pax have no idea > "their" flight is delayed inbound, since there's an empty 767 sitting there > at the gate), and the inbound LHR-LAX pax will be > accommodated on other flights. The domestic leg will be redesignated > UA8921 for ATC purposes so it does not get confused with the "real" UA921 > coming in from LHR. > > These schemes have been upset by the termination of Shuttle by United; it > would be nice to know UA's current scheme, although I'm sure it is somewhat > similar. > > -- > Michael C. Berch > mcb@postmodern.com