Talk:United Kingdom military aircraft registration number

Underwing serials, fin flashes, and out-of-sequence serials
Underwing serials were carried on both wings of most types until the early 80s (IIRC), when the serial under the port wing was discontinued. Since that time they seem to have been phased out altogether, although I'm not entirely sure of the timescale.

I think the section on fin flashes is off-topic and might be better in the Royal Air Force roundels article.

It doesn't seem to be just demonstrators and leased aircraft that are getting out-of-sequence serials, there have been a lot of allocations from the ZZ range recently, and small allocations from recent ranges (eg. ZH001-ZH004) have also been happening. Letdorf (talk) 11:50, 14 December 2007 (UTC).


 * I agree with your comment about underwing serials, I just couldnt find any reference to when it actually happened. I agree about the fin flash, Thanks for the corrections and I agree with your other comments. Just trying to be careful that this stays encylopedic and not turn into a listing of serials. MilborneOne (talk) 13:53, 14 December 2007 (UTC)


 * The underwing serials were originally applied so that members of the public could identify individual aircraft and hence pilot, crew, etc., so that they could be reported to the police in cases of unauthorised low or dangerous flying. That was why the underwing serials were in such large lettering. They were later discontinued when for obvious reasons the high speeds of low flying jets made them unreadable and therefore pointless.


 * Prior to this, offending pilot(s) and/or crew could deny that the aircraft performing the manoeuvres was them and without positive identification the RAF would not take disciplinary action against them. Once the RAF had the aircraft serial and the time of the alleged offence, they knew which pilot and crew were flying in the aircraft at the time.

Use of term "serial" to describe registration numbers

 * Wikipedia is descriptive not proscriptive (like a dictionary) so it names articles according to principles such as WP:COMMONNAME recognising that what a thing is known as may not be what it is officially, or formally, called.
 * For determining what things are called wikipedia looks to what Reliable Sources use, the 'experts' in the field.
 * When something is known by more than one name, these alternatives are also included in the article, treated as set out at Manual_of_Style/Lead_section (specifically: "significant alternative names for the topic should be mentioned in the article")

Among the sources cited in this article, at least two refer to the number as"serial" (including Sturtivant, who was well-respected aviation historian, and who is writing for Flight, a reputable magazine ). I can also find instances of the RAF Museum using the term in their Individual Aircraft Histories and public facing website (eg the Lysander in their collection), The CAA, through the G-INFO databases records the history of ex-military aircraft as "serial" (eg entry for G-GAII under "registration mark exemption details" gives Issue date: 21-Jun-2011, Origin: ROYAL NAVY, Code: 861/VL, Serial: XE685"

There is sufficient evidence to show that "serial" is an often used name for the letter/number combinations carried by British military aircraft. GraemeLeggett (talk) 20:04, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

Contemporary Second World War examples of "serial" being used to identify aircraft.:
 * "Extract from operational record book of 103 Squadron" from International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive
 * "Collision on landing of Halifax MZ 564 and Mosquito DZ 377 at RAF Foulsham", also from IBCCDA. GraemeLeggett (talk) 19:12, 16 April 2024 (UTC)