Miscellaneous desk
< March 1	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	March 3 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 2[edit]

Correct naming of an individual aircraft of a specific type[edit]

How do you correctly label an individual aircraft with its type and identifier and with or without its unit - like the F-15 AF 84 002 (?) pictured? --KnightMove (talk) 18:16, 2 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps a better place to ask might be Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Aviation. Alansplodge (talk) 13:41, 3 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's an F15-D operated by 142nd Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard. We know it's the 142d because they're the "Redhawks" (which is written on the vertical stabilizer) and it's says "Oregon". The 84 shows it was made in 1984, and it's a twin-seater (because two names are written on it). So it's a -D. If you're asking how we'd figure how which variant it was without seeing the tail info - we know it's an F-15 and we know its a twin seater, so it's either an B or D. The external differences between the A/B airframe and the C/D are pretty subtle. Supposedly the C/D has chonkier landing gear (because it can carry more weight); I can maybe see that in photos. the C/D has different radar, so it apparently has different antennas. But the antennas are so subtle that I can't really see what's different. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 17:28, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Although if it's a twin-seater, there's no 2nd seat. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 17:50, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I thought the OP was asking the correct format for entering the type and serial number in Wikipedia. Perhaps KnightMove could clarify? Alansplodge (talk) 22:14, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, indeed. Do you know that this is called the "serial number"? --KnightMove (talk) 01:44, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It is on this side of the Atlantic. Alansplodge (talk) 22:33, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, now I have learned that this is the modex. So my question is: How do you correctly format labelling an individual aircraft with type + modex? --KnightMove (talk) 02:09, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The article about modex seems extremely US-centric to me, just like "tail number" is typical US terminology. For describing the plane pictured, I see no need to mention the "002" at all, quite sufficient would be "An F15 of the xxx Air Force". Or perhaps "An F15-D of the Oregon Air National Guard". Better to not try being over-specific. (talk) 13:01, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The usual convention goes something like, "[Type][Registration number]", possibly continuing "...of [operator]" if that is relevant. This is clearly not a two-seater so is not an F-15D as suggested above. Note the smaller 84 preceding to 002 of the tail number; that identifies it as the single-seat C variant. So, depending on the context of the main text, here we may want something like, "F-15C 84002 of 142nd Wing, USAF." But if it is just a general illustration, and the individual machine is not the specific subject of the article, then the tail number should be left out as it is irrelevant. — Cheers, Steelpillow (Talk) 14:02, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, agreed. If the text does not mention an individual aircraft then there's no reason to list the tail number. -Fnlayson (talk) 19:05, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks to the editors from WikiProject Aviation who answered my post there. Alansplodge (talk) 12:56, 7 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]