| United Kingdom aircraft registration | |
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United Kingdom aircraft registration is a register and means of identifcation for British owned and operated commercial and private aircraft, they are identified by registration letters starting with the prefix G-.[1]
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An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile. In accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation all aircraft must be registered with a national aviation authority and they must carry proof of this registration in the form of a legal document called a Certificate of Registration at all times when in operation.
The register is maintained by the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority.[2]
Although aircraft had been flown in the United Kingdom since 1908 they were not registered and were not required to carry any external markings.[3] The principal of registering and externally-marking aircraft had been agreed upon in 1910 at an international convention in Paris and a draft Air Navigation Order had been prepared in 1911, but was not put into force before the First World War.[3][4]
With the end of the First World War the Air Navigation Regulations came into force on 20 April 1919, allowing civil flying to commence on 1 May 1919. The regulation stated that all aircraft must carry registration marks and any passenger-carrying aircraft must have a certificate of airworthiness.[3][4] The International Air Navigation Conference in Paris had not concluded, so a temporary system was started; former military aircraft would retain military serials and any new or re-built aircraft would be registered in a sequence starting with K-100.[3][4] The first civil flight under the new regulations took place on 1 May 1919 when a de Havilland DH.9 of Aircraft Transport and Travel flew from Hounslow to Bournemouth using former military serial C6054 as an identity.[3] The "K series" registrations allocated were in the range K-100 to K-175, with K-169 being the highest known to have been used.[5]
The Paris International Conference had allocated the British Empire the prefix G followed by four other letters.[1] The United Kingdom decided to use the G-Exxx sequence for heavier-than-air aircraft (for example G-EAAA) and "G-Fxxx" for lighter-than-air aircraft.[1] The new register came into force on 22 July 1919; aircraft flying on temporary former military serials and those alloted in the K-100 sequence were all re-registered sequentially from G-EAAA.[1]
At the 1927 International Radio-Telegraph Conference the United Kingdom was allocated radio callsign prefixes B, G, M, VP, VQ and VR. Within this new allocation the United Kingdom continued to use the prefix G- for all aircraft but the sequence was re-started at G-AAAA, which continued into the 21st century.[3] The first registration in the sequence, G-AAAA, was allocated to a de Havilland Gipsy Moth, registered on 30 July 1928 to Geoffrey de Havilland.[1] At first the registrations were issued in sequential alphabetical order but since the 1970s any four-letter combination is used. Countries in the British Empire that had used the G- prefix were allocated new two-letter allocations.[8]
The oldest flyable aircraft in the world as of 2011, a Humber-built Bleriot XI from 1909 owned by the Shuttleworth Collection in the UK, still uses the very early form registration G-AANG.
From 1981 most microlights were registered in the G-MBAA/MZZZ sequence but when that had been exhausted in 1998 microlights were registered with any unused suffix.[8]
In 1937 the sequence G-GAAA to G-GAAE was used for five gliders to operate in an international competition in Germany.
From 1930 to 2003, other than aircraft required to fly outside of the United Kingdom, gliders did not need to be registered in the G- sequence but on a separate register held by the British Gliding Association. The register started with BGA.101 and sequenced upward in numerical order. The identity was not always marked externally as competition numbers were often used instead. Although competition numbers could be any alpha-numeric characters a three-letter code (called a trigraph) were used to align with the BGA number and this started with the lowest numbered glider still extant, BGA231 a Abbott-Baynes Scud II, being "AAA".
From 2003, following a ruling by the European Aviation Safety Agency, all gliders are now registered and marked externally in the G-xxxx sequence.[9]
From 1982 the sequence G-FYAA to G-FYNA was used for unmanned toy balloons.[10]
A special sequence was allocated for Concorde aircraft to allow the use of the aircraft on internal services in the United States by Branniff.[11] For example the former G-BOAC was re-registered as G-N81AC so on arrival at Washington-Dallas the "G" could be covered up and the United States registration N81AC could be used for internal flights.[11]