Nothing deep here, just my curiosity. When a type was allocated serials that eventually went unused what became of those serials? Were they re-cycled onto other projects or were they written off?
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
AIR: British Serials
Jan 07, 2009
4 Replies
They were just written off. There are far more unused serial blocks than there are used ones.
I have to wonder what will happened next. Serials were originally of the format A9999. Around 1940 those serials ran out and a new format was used AA999. We are now in a position where serials in the ZZ range are being issued. What next?
Bruce Robertson, in his book, "British Aircraft Serials" states that serials allocated to cancelled orders just went unused, but that there were other batches deliberately unused, known as "blackout blocks", presumably for security reasons.
Regards
Pat Macguire
AAA99, I suspect.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
I think I ran into that fact in Air International years back. Obviously it was done to throw the observers from 'the other side' off.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
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