US Air Force Markings

[TheChronicOne]

I saw someone post pics of a completed model on a FB page.  Some of the markings had me confused. At first I thought I might have a "whif" on my hands but someone else commented that they had one on the bench too. So, I did an image search and found this:



So.... I guess it WAS real? My confusion is from the tail markings. I thought the number below "AF" denoted the year of manufacture.  Now..I know damn well no F4 Phantom was produced in 1940 so what's the deal on this?

[scooter]

There was a period in AF markings when the production year was the last digit of the year.  Like on this F-106, 59-0007 (119thFIS, 177FIG NJANG)


I don't recall when the 2 digit year came into vogue, probably sometime after Vietnam.  So it is possible that this particular F-4 is a 1964 vintage fighter. :shrugs:

[dadlamassu]

The lower F-4 also has AF 40 on its tail

[sandiego89]

Indeed the first digit was often omitted.  The picture you show is likely a F-4C with a serial number from the year 1964.  Full serial 64-0665. 

A few key items form Joe Baughers excellent site that covers serial numbers and other things quite well:

"Since military aircraft were at that time not expected to last more than ten years, the first digit of the fiscal year number was omitted in the tail number as was the AC prefix and the hyphen. For example, Curtiss P-40B serial number 41-5205 had the tail number 15205 painted on its tail fin, Curtiss P-40K serial number 42-11125 had the tail number 211125 painted on the fin, and P-51B 42-106559 had 2106559 painted on the tail..."

"In 1958, a regulation was promulgated which decreed that that the tail number should be expanded to a minimum of 5 digits in length. Sometimes the tail number was cut down in length to five digits by deliberately omitting both of the fiscal year digits--for example 64-14841 would be presented on the tail as 14841. Sometime, one or more of the first digits of the sequence number would also be omitted. This practice lead to a lot of confusion."

later by Vietnam: "the three-digit sequence number has a height of the AF and fiscal year letters combined and is sometimes called the "large" component of the tail number. For example, F-4E serial number 67-0288 had the tail number 67(small) 288 (large). This could of course lead to confusion, since aircraft 67-1288, 67-2288, etc would have exactly the same tail numbers as 67-0288 under this scheme.

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/usafserials.html

And on the specific aircraft you brought up would be 64-0665: 0665 (MSN 885) WFU Sep 1988.  Was preserved at Minnesota Military Museum, currently preserved at Cass County
               Historical Society, Hector Field, Fargo, North Dakota.

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1964.html


-Dave

[TheChronicOne]

Ask and ye shall receive!! Man, you all are the best! Thanks for stopping by with all this neat and interesting information.


"....    This practice lead to a lot of confusion."   Hheh!!! I can see why!

Thanks for the links, Dave. They went into the bookmarks. Good stuff!