United Kingdom aircraft test serials are used to externally identify aircraft flown within the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

without a full

Certificate of Airworthiness A standard certificate of airworthiness is a permit for commercial passenger or cargo operation, issued for an aircraft by the civil aviation authority in the state/nation in which the aircraft is registered. For other aircraft such as crop-spraye ...

. They can be used for testing experimental and

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

aircraft or modifications, pre-delivery flights for foreign customers and are sometimes referred to as "B" class markings.

1930s

An initial set of markings was introduced in 1929, each company was allocated a letter to which would follow a number, sometimes with a hyphen or a gap between. For example, A was allocated to the

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company, or Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, was a British aircraft manufacturer. History Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was established as the Aerial Department of the Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth & Company e ...

and ''A 1'' was used in March 1930 on an

Armstrong Whitworth Starling The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.14 Starling was a prototype British single-seat biplane fighter developed for the Royal Air Force in the late 1920s which unsuccessfully competed against the Bristol Bulldog. Development The A.W.14 Starling was de ...

. Sometimes Hawker and Vickers would also add the letters PV to the markings to indicate a private venture (that is a type in development not paid for by the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

1940s

The presentation was changed to look like a military serial for security reasons during the Second World War. For example, the prototype

de Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, shoulder-winged, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the Second World War. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or ...

was allocated test markings ''E-0234''.

1948

Following a change back to the original system in 1946 a new system was introduced on 1 January 1948. Each company was allocated a number which followed the British nationality marking ''G'' and then followed by an individual identity number. For example,

Blackburn Aeroplane & Motor Company Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north- ...

were allocated G-2 and the first allocation G-2-1 was used on a

Miles Messenger The Miles M.38 Messenger is a British four-seat liaison and private owner aircraft built by Miles Aircraft. Design and development The Messenger was designed to meet an informal request from a group of British Army officers for a robust, slow ...

used as an engine testbed for the Cirrus Bombardier. Companies could allocate and re-use the identities as they liked, some ran in sequence from ''1'' and others used the aircraft manufacturers serial number as part of the marking, for example G-51-200 was a

Britten Norman Islander The Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander is a British light utility aircraft and regional airliner designed and originally manufactured by Britten-Norman of the United Kingdom. Still in production, the Islander is one of the best-selling commercial air ...

with a manufacturers serial number of 200. Allocations of codes from defunct companies have been reallocated.

Letter sequence 1929–1947

Numeric sequence since 1948

References

Bibliography

* * {{refend British civil aircraft Aircraft markings