Why Belgian reg. OO- ???

777 · Post by **777** » 06 Nov 2003, 19:35

Hallo,

A long lasting question is:

Why does belgium have OO- as registration and not BE- or B- ??

In the beginning it was O-.

I know China is B- , but at that time C- was still open as Canada had CF-.

Later in the 80's Canada changed from CF- to C-.

Also why does the US have N- or NC- as in the beginning ?

Some countries like Mexico and Brazil have several.
Mexico XA-,XB- and XC-.
Brazil PT-, PP- and recently PR-.

I think this is an interesting item.

Andre

Comet · Post by **Comet** » 06 Nov 2003, 19:51

The list could be endless.
Why does Iceland have TF and not IS (its car registration.)
Why is Norway LN
Why is Finland OH
Why is New Zealand ZK.

It would be much easier if air registrations matched the international car registrations, then Belgium would be B.

63 · Post by 63 » 06 Nov 2003, 20:07

Yes but the Belgian is the STRANGEST.

What does OO- stand for, I don't see any connection

63

L-1011 · Post by **L-1011** » 06 Nov 2003, 20:09

There's absolutely no logic , (or not very much) in the Aircraft reg buisiness

As for the countries which have several prefixes like Mexico, I suppose it's not because they only have 26*26*26 possible reg's per prefix. That makes more than 17000

The mistery lives on

ciao,
TriStar

744rules · Post by **744rules** » 06 Nov 2003, 21:35

Similar question was raised on another forum. A pilot gave this answer :

Why N for USA then...
Registration letters or letters/number configuration have generally absolutely no relation with the name of the country it is assigned to...
ICAO assigns these letters - as an "agency" of the United nations"...
The "old members" of ICAO, i.e. France (getting F-) or Deutschland (for D-) were lucky to probably get the letters they wanted...
xxx
An interesting little piece of trivia with country designation letters for airplanes and radio stations is that they are often near the same lettering sequence... I am a radio ham also...
Examples, in Argentina, LUxxxx would designate a radio station, while airplanes are registered LV-xxx... or other example, Belgium has ONxxx for their radio stations and OO-xxx for their airplanes... just the "next letter" in the alphabet is used... not a coincidence evidently... There are radio hams in the USA with stations starting with K... or N, N like the airplanes...
xxx
B is China correct, but so is Taiwan, officially part of China...
xxx
In the old days, a nation would receive a lettering sequence for the mother nation and "their colonies"... look at the Netherlands, they got PH... their Antilles (Dutch Carribean) have got PJ... and Indonesia got PK...
xxx
And look at the whole list of VP... all colonies of UK, but the next letter designates which specific territory...
xxx
Many new nations get their their "registry" now combined with letters and numbers, they probably ran out of letters to assign to them...

Hope this clarifies a bit

777 · Post by **777** » 06 Nov 2003, 21:52

Hallo 744 rules,

One of the first logical explanations I ever got, but can be elaborated.

BTW there are plenty of letter combinations still open.

Belgium was among the first like the UK(G), Deutschland(D), France(F), Italy(I), Luxemburg(LX), Japan(J), Soviet Union (CCCP), etc...

So this is what I mean by strange that they did not get B !?

BTW belgium also has OT- used as military registration in the 60's & 70's.

Andre

Post by **sn26567** » 07 Nov 2003, 08:52

777 wrote:Belgium was among the first like the UK(G), Deutschland(D), France(F), Italy(I), Luxemburg(LX), Japan(J), Soviet Union (CCCP), etc...

So this is what I mean by strange that they did not get B !?

Because B was already in use for a much larger country: China. O was one of the only single letters still available.

777 wrote:BTW belgium also has OT- used as military registration in the 60's & 70's...

OT-... was indeed in use for the Belgian Air Force, and OL-... for the light aviation of the Belgian land forces.
The latter (OL) was followed, not by three letters, but by one letter and two digits. Example: the Puma helicopters used for the Gendarmerie were OL-G01 and G02. The Alouette helicopters had OL-A01 to A40. Etc. for the Piper Cubs and the Britten Norman Islanders.

suetens · Post by **suetens** » 07 Nov 2003, 09:45

I believe the logic is that the Belgian army allready had "O" as registration and they simply double the letter to indicate the civilian aircrafts.
suetens

777 · Post by **777** » 07 Nov 2003, 12:32

sn26567 wrote:OT-... was indeed in use for the Belgian Air Force, and OL-... for the light aviation of the Belgian land forces.

So the T in OT stands maybe for Transport ?

And the L in OL for Light ?

Is there nothing for the fighters ?

Thanks Andre

Andre

Skystef · Post by **Skystef** » 07 Nov 2003, 20:09

In addition to the above reports: between 1919-1931 all Belgian civil aircraft carried the O-Bxxx registration. Afterwards letter B was substituted by the O thus creating OO-xxx. Blocks were reserved for the Belgian Congo between OO-CAA & OO-CZZ, later changed to 9O-xxx and 9Q-xxx. Also some blocks were reserved for particular operators, most known is the OO-Sxx for Sabena/Sobelair, a tendency that continues today like the example of Thomas Cook OO-Txx.
Some blocks are reserved for particular types, like OO-Zxx for gliders and sailplanes, some OO-Bxx for balloons. ULM's have a combination 3 numbers or a letter and two number.
If you like to know more about the Belgian register of today, i kindly refer U2 this book or make a visit to bookstore De Slegte where an earlier edition for 1,5 Euro is available.

SS

777 · Post by **777** » 07 Nov 2003, 21:02

Thanks for this very interesting info from Q707.

If we go on like this we'll have a complete file on the beginnings of belgian registration.

Andre

Lien · Post by **Lien** » 07 Nov 2003, 22:55

This looks to be a very interesting topic.

Hardly nobody ever asks why Belgium = OO-... ?

Now we have some answers, and more will follow.

Lien !

twan01 · Post by **twan01** » 07 Nov 2003, 23:43

I did some research and found out that the decision to use registrations on civilian aircraft was taken during a convention held in France in 1919, and undersigned by the 27 countries who participated at the convention.

But this doesn't explane yet why Belgium got the "O". So I'll continue to find out why, and keep you informed. :teach: