Civil Aircraft Registration Numbers
National Database Searches

The best way to identify a civil aircraft is by its registration number. So, whenever taking photos of aircraft, always make sure that you've included a picture of the aircraft's registration number or the tail number of aircraft. This is extremely helpful later on when you're trying to identify the aircraft in your photos. The United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, and many other countries all maintain excellent aircraft registration databases on the Internet. By having the registration number of the aircraft, you are just a "click" away from obtaining detailed information about the aircraft. Take a look at the picture of the Goodyear Blimp below. On the lower rudder of the aircraft are the numbers "N10A". The "N" means that the blimp is registered in the United States. Now let's find out from the FAA Registry some detailed information about this aircraft:

1	Click on the United States Flag below. This will take you to the FAA Registry website.
2	Click on N-Number
3	Enter "10A" and click on the blue Go! button
4	At this point the registration data for the aircraft will appear.
United States "N-Search"

Goodyear Blimp "Spirit of America" (N10A)

About N-Numbers

An N-number is an aircraft registration number used in the United States. All aircraft registered there have a number starting with N. Due to the large numbers of aircraft registered in the United States an alpha-numeric system is used. N-numbers may only consist of 1 to 5 characters and must start with a number other than zero and can not end in more than two letters. In addition, N-numbers may not contain the letters I or O, due to their close similarity with the numbers 1 and 0. Each alphabetic character in the suffix can have one of 24 discrete values, while each numeric digit can be one of 10, except the first, which can take on only nine values. This yields a total of 915,399 possible registration numbers in the name-space, though certain combinations are reserved either for government use or for other special purposes.

The following are the N-Number combinations that could be used:

• N1 to N9 (Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) internal use only)
• N1A to N9Z
• N1AA to N9ZZ
• N10 to N99 (Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) internal use only)
• N10A to N99Z
• N10AA to N99ZZ
• N100 to N999
• N100A to N999Z
• N100AA to N999ZZ
• N1000 to N9999
• N1000A to N9999Z
• N10000 to N99999

An older (pre-1950s) aircraft may have a second letter in its identifier, identifying the category of aircraft. This additional letter is not actually part of the aircraft identification (e.g. NC12345 is the same registration as N12345). Aircraft category letters have not been included on any registration numbers issued since about 1950, but they still appear on antique aircraft for authenticity purposes. The categories included:

• C = standard
• L = limited
• R = restricted
• X = experimental

International Aircraft Registration Searches

United States "N-Search"	Canada "C-search"	United Kingdom "G-search"
France "F-Search"	Australia "VH-Search"	Bermuda "VP-B Search"
Brazil "PP, PR, PT-Search"	Bulgaria "LZ-Search"	Denmark "OY-Search"
Finland "OH-Search"	Iceland "TF-Search"	India "VT-Search"
Ireland "EI-Search"	Netherlands "PH-Search"	New Zealand "ZK-Search"
Norway "LN-Search"	Singapore "9V-Search"	Slovakia "OM-Search"
South Africa "ZS-Search"	Spain "EC-Search"	Sweden "SE-Search"
Switzerland "HB-Search"

---

| Home | Archive Subscriber Support | Guestbook | Contact Us | Legal Notice | Aviation Links |
Copyright © 2011 Skytamer Images, Whittier, California
All rights reserved