Why do all the tail numbers on private planes and helicopters start with “N”?
Actually only those aircraft registered in the United States have registration numbers that begin with “N.” Other countries have different designations, so you can tell where the aircraft is registered. In the US, an alpha-numeric (numbers and letters) system is used due to the large numbers of aircraft registered in the United States. N-numbers may only consist of one to five characters and must start with a number other than zero. The registration cannot end in more than two letters. In addition, N-numbers may not contain the letters I or O, due to their close similarity with the numbers 1 and 0. The history of the “N” number comes from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)web site: “The U.S. received the “N” as its nationality designator under the International Air Navigation Convention, held in 1919. The Convention prescribed an aircraft-marking scheme of a single letter indicating nationality followed by a hyphen and four identity letters (for example, G-REMS). The five letter
