RAF Aircraft Serial Number Look Up tool

[Jagan]

http://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/


This searches adatabase of all RAF aircraft serial numbers. Currently this contains over 250,000+ look ups for Serials of RAF aircraft. This tool only tells you which aircraft would have been assigned a particular number series.. In many logbooks, Pilots would have noted only the number component and left out the alphabet component. This tool helps identify the possible aircraft based on the serial number patterns. The data in this page is based on this forum post made by Ross McNeill. Please note there is no additional information hosted in this Database regarding aircraft fates or allocations.
This tool is only useful to find out which aircraft shares a common numerical serial with another, or to validate an existing or incorrect serial, and trying to identify the aircraft based on incomplete serials noted in logbooks. The database is still awaiting the update of the J and K series aircraft.

Feedback welcome.

[bruce dennis]

Excellent tool, thanks. It took me a minute to get my head around the way it works but now I can see it, no doubt will use it.

Bruce

[Jagan]

I am beginning to question if Ross' original post only indicates 'blocks' but not the actual allocated serials. He may have indicated a range - which may have unissued numbers.. but I may have counted those in my database.

I pulled some totals by running queries and most of the totals are inflated. The serials also appear to be in variance with what is shown on www.ukserials.com
ah well....

[Bill Walker]

I had noticed that Ross gave ranges of serials, but did not indicate the black out blocks that were omitted. The www.ukserials.com site is based on Robertson's books, and appears to be more accurate.

[Jagan]

So i need to work on those black out blocks.. and also fill i some missing blanks. More work ahead..



Just enhanced the search options - added a box for "View All Serials by Aircraft name" search on the right

Enter Serial Number & Aircraft Name	View All serials by Aircraft Name
Serial Aircraft	Aircraft Name
Note: Enter part of the serial number and part of the aircraft name

It will list the alphabet blocks and then offer a drill down page..

[Ross_McNeill]

The original serial list was from AM 78 lists and so were for serials allocated to built airframes, delivered to the RAF or impressed from other sources.

The intent was to record from the AM78 all the RAF serial that were issued to finished airframes that formed RAF contracts.

I also included RAF Serial allocation that was listed in the AM 78 but allocated to airframes from an RAF contract batch but diverted before RAF delivery to Commonwealth/Dominion Air Forces. Excluded were Serials for Commonweath/Dominion AF that were not originally RAF contract batches.

Blackout blocks were catered by the start and end of serial clumps. Where a blackout occurred then I finished the previous block at the last allocated serial and started at the next allocated serial eg

AA718 AA982 Spitfire Supermarine
AB118 AB536 Spitfire Supermarine

Ross

[Jagan]

Some of it are errors on my side. I ran an automation script that took Ross's data and it 'filled in the blanks'.. eg.. if the range range from TT9** to TV1**.. the script filled in "TU" serials which it shouldnt..similarly it also filled up the TC*** series when it shouldnt have.

I manually cleaned up some of the data.. but I will need to review all the data over the coming days to make sure its correct. .. will also refer to bruce robertsons book and some of the J J Halley's RAF serials ..

[Jagan]

A bit of work. but I cleaned up the J to Z series of the black out ranges as well as cancelled contracts. Current totals in J to Z

The J to Z Series
J Series : 9967
K Series : 8937
L Series : 7210
N Series : 6021
P Series : 5838
R Series : 4807
T Series : 5460
V Series : 5779
W Series : 4739
X Series : 3413
Z Series : 5139

http://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/

The AA to ZZ series still needs clean up.. will follow over the next few weeks. Please let me know if you see any inaccuracies.

[Jagan]

AA to EZ Series cleaned up with the black out ranges removed.

A A - A Z : 14445
B A - B Z : 12356
D A - D Z : 8952
E A - E Z : 12783

[Jagan]

RAF Serials Look Up

As of 22 May 2016, the serials from FA to TZ series have been cleaned out. Comprision tests indicate the serials are now within 90% accuracy.

As of 16 June 2016, A new query form has been designed that allows you to search easily for serials based on alphabet, or number or aircraft name. The querying can be made either on an alphabet, number, or aircraft name, a combination of any of the three or all of the three.

Here are some comparisons with known Production Runs of aircraft and what is present in the database.

Aircraft	Production Run	DB Count	Margin of Error
Hawker Tempest	1400	1400	0 %
DH 98 Mosquito	7781	7782	0.01 %
Avro Lancaster	7377	7564	2.5 %
Vickers Wellington	11461	12683	10.5 %
Fairey Fulmar	600	600	0 %
Spitfire	20351	20905	2.72 %
Seafire	2334	2575	10 %
Hawker Hurricane	14583	15138	3.8 %

Not bad. But obviously there are some 'blackout' blocks that may have crept in.