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Aristotle Socrates Onasis, after marrying Ja. Kennedy, bought, from Boeing, a 742, the Olympic Eagle - now left in Hellikon Airport to rot, after the Olympic Airlines went public ..

At the top of its tail the character 'B' appears, what does it mean?

enter image description here

gsamaras
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    What’s the aircraft‘s registration? – Cpt Reynolds Jul 17 '19 at 16:25
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    I don't know what a registration is, but maybe SX-OAB? Could that last character be that B? – gsamaras Jul 17 '19 at 16:41
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    It could well be the last letter of the registration. Wikipedia has a picture of SX-BKH and it has an "H" at the top of the tail. – FreeMan Jul 17 '19 at 16:47
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    And here is SX-DFC an A340 with a "C" on the tail. Not conclusive proof, but a very likely candidate. Unfortunately, this scheme limits them to a max of 26 aircraft at a time, and they need some cooperation from the CAA to get the registrations right. :) – FreeMan Jul 17 '19 at 16:48
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    @FreeMan same for the B727 next to the Jumbo, 'A' is at the top of the tail, and the last character of the registration's string, see video. – gsamaras Jul 17 '19 at 17:28
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    @FreeMan Since you could probably identify the aircraft model by the tail, I‘d observe that that scheme limits the available registrations per aircraft model to 26, so it might have sufficed for that particular airline... – Cpt Reynolds Jul 17 '19 at 19:58
  • I noticed this Iranian ATA Airlines 737 had the last letter right on the nose! https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9078184 – zymhan Jul 20 '19 at 07:32
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    Hmm @zymhan, maybe the most visible part is the nose in their setting, nice observation! – gsamaras Jul 20 '19 at 10:12

1 Answers1

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To identify the aircraft from a distance.. eg if you are driving on the ramp and need to get to SX-OAB and there are several Olympic jumbos parked up, and from where you are you can't read the registration on the fuselage. Not too bad if they're in the same general direction but if some are on your right and some are on your left it may help if you could get a hint from the tail. They only had one letter as OA never had that many widebodies.. I think they never had more than 3 747s at the same time and some A300s. Lufthansa on the other had uses the last two letters. Probably because they had 400s (pax and combis) and 200s at the same time. The pax 400s started at D-ABVA, the 400 combis started D-ABTA and the 200s were D-ABZ(x)(Freighters) or D-ABY(x)(pax).

More airlines put the registration on the nosewheel doors, this saves the ramp staff from trying to get a glimpse of the tail (not easy in bad weather). It is also common to see the last one or two digits/alphabets on the front end, most commonly on the nosewheel doors but also above the cockpit windows or just behind the radome.

Anilv
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