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Navy Bureau Number question

Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:48 pm

Does anyone here know of a reference by which Naval aircraft Bureau Numbers can be dated by year of procurement, build, etc? I have asked Joe Baugher and he believes the information may be available somewhere.

Anyone? Thanks!

Mon Aug 04, 2008 1:47 am

Out of the three Navy serial references I have, none of them deal directly by year.. However , one of them , the Merseyside Aviation Society Publication, "U.S.Navy Serials 1941 to 1972", does provide these benchmarks, serials 00001 to120000 alloted 1940-45, 125000 passed in 1949, 130000 passed in1950, 135000 passed in 1952, 140000 in 1954, 145000 in 1957, 150000 in 1961 , 155000 in 1967 and 159000 in 1972.
This is not exactly what you wanted but it al least it can get you in the ballpark and of course you are on your own as to higher numbers.
There were two other lists of numbers before the present sequence. The first series used an "A" for airplane and ran from A.51 to A.999 , there being an estimated 50 aircraft in the Navy before serials were started.
Second series went from 0001 to 7303 which was reached in late 1940.
mike13
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