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Canadian Military Aircraft Serial Numbers RCAF 1000 to 9999 Rapid growth early in WW II, to early postwar procurement |
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| The serial numbers listed here
are aircraft owned and
operated by
the RCAF, mostly within
North America. The 400 series squadrons that operated in Europe,
the
Mediterranean, and eventually in South-East Asia, used RAF owned, RAF
numbered aircraft. These are covered in their
own web page. |
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| The
early days of World War II In the early years of World War Two, the RCAF expanded as fast as it could procure aircraft and train aircrew, as did most of the Allies. New aircraft came from the Canadian factories started in the 1920s and 30s, from American factories, and from the UK. Civil aircraft were impressed in Canada, and purchased second hand from the US. Many less successful British operational aircraft, like the Battle and the Anson, found their way to Canada, both new and second hand. Similarly, less successful American types like the Douglas Digby (B-18 Bolo) and the Northrop Nomad (A-17) found a home in Canada. After taking over ten years to assign the first 1,000 RCAF serial numbers, serial number 10,000 was reached almost exactly 3 years later, when Bolingbroke number 10000 was delivered on 19 October 1942. Numbering continued with 5 digit serials from this point. |
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| Starting
with 1001, the four
digit serials were generally assigned in blocks by aircraft
types. Gaps were sometimes left to accommodate future
procurement, and some of these gaps would be filled in with other
aircraft types at later dates. Because of this, the relative age
of aircraft from this period can only be roughly determined from
relative serial numbers. There does not appear to have been any
deliberate attempt to mislead observers about procurement numbers by
using this numbering method, unlike RAF serial number allocation at the
same time. |
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| The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
and aircraft for export The RCAF began to expand its own training facilities even before war was declared, and this would lead into the massive multi-national British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of 1940 to 1945. The BCATP era is a gold mine for the serial number enthusiast. Because of the multi-national funding, some aircraft were issued two or even three serial numbers - RCAF, RAF and USAAF. Usually only one of these numbers would be physically marked on the aircraft. RCAF schools operated RCAF owned aircraft with RCAF serials and RAF serials, and even a handful with USAAF serials. The RAF also funded and operated schools in Canada, using RAF owned aircraft with RAF serials. Outside of the BCATP, Canadian built aircraft were also operated at schools in the US, with USAAF serials. Many Canadian built operational aircraft from this era, bound for the US, USSR, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, would also have multiple serial numbers assigned. I hope to live long enough to sort this all out and include the results in these pages. |
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| Defense of Canada The home defense squadrons also grew rapidly, but not to the dramatic degree seen in the training schools. East coast squadrons were in action over the North Atlantic from September 1939 to May 1945, flying long hours in terrible weather, and scoring several successes. On the west coast, bomber and fighter squadrons saw action in the Aleutians after the Japanese invasion, and against Japanese balloon bombs later in the war. Early in the war, several home defense squadrons were moved to the UK, and would form the first 400 series squadrons on 1 March 1941. The few Canadian numbered aircraft they took with them were soon transferred to the RAF, and for the rest of the war the RCAF overseas would use RAF owned aircraft. A few long range transports and patrol aircraft were regular visitors to Europe, and one Eastern Air Command squadron, No. 162, operated Cansos briefly from Iceland and the UK, but otherwise most of the aircraft here never left North America. |
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| Post war era A few of these 4 digit aircraft survived the war and the mass sell-offs at the end of the war, and continued in RCAF service. No less than 71 Dakotas and 53 Expeditors survived past February 1968, and were allocated Canadian Armed Forces serial numbers. Many of these were in storage at this time, and it is not known if all these new numbers were physically marked on the aircraft. A few 4 digit aircraft would be transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy in the post war era, retaining their RCAF serial number. These are listed here under the original RCAF number., with the date of the change of ownership listed, when known. |
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| Some blocks of numbers, in the
1000s, 3000s, 5000s, and the 9000s, were
not
completely used during the war. Some of these available numbers would
be used for new procurement of transports, assault gliders, and
helicopters from 1945 up to the 1960s. They are included in these lists
for now. Post war procurement is shown in italics in the
table below. Some postwar procurement recycled a few of the war
time 4 and 5 digit serial numbers, and these
are listed separately.
It should be noted that several aircraft orders were canceled at
the end of the war, particularly for Bolingbrokes and Cornells.
As a result, some of the serial numbers listed below were never
actually marked on aircraft. The last 4 digit serial numbers
issued by the RCAF
appear to be those of the
de Havilland Canada Buffalos procured in the late 1960s. |
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| The table below will connect you
to two types of listings of these
aircraft. The "Brief lists" present a minimum amount of information
about as many aircraft as I can fit on a reasonably sized page.
Use these lists to
identify individual aircraft, or to quickly scan a large range of
serials. The "Detailed lists" contain all the information currently in
my database, and are broken into many more pages to keep the data
manageable. |
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| This data has come from a variety of sources, and may contain all sorts of errors. In the future, I will add a complete list of references. For now, some recent Internet references can be found at the links below. I would welcome any corrections or additions you may have. Contact me using the link below. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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© 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 by R. W. R. Walker All rights reserved under the copyright laws. This is an amateur site - please don't rely on any of this data for anything important! Created 27 April 2004. Updated 11 December 2009. |
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