Are all aircraft required to carry tail numbers?

I saw an unusual looking plane today that had none at a local out of the way airport that has me asking.

It’s none of that “men in black” stuff.

It looked almost like a ASW neptune without a tailboom,a civil version with 4 small engines.

Only, this plane was painted white,green,and silver with the words “Naval airlift command”

on the sides and a flag painted on the nose that looked Norwiegen.

I would guess its a retired VIP bird but it did have me wondering why no side or tail numbers?

You’d probably would have had to look real close, sometimes the registration numbers (especially on historic/warbird) are tucked under the horizontal stab in small font. If it were US registered it would have an N-number…Canada would start with a C- each country has its own unique registration.

Like on this Mustang…you can see the small N number under the stab…hard to see but there.

“Naval Airlift Command” is a red herring. Pics?

I took pics with my phone but don’t have a chip to down load it in to.

I am straight up on this “no red herring”!

I don’t play like that!

It is located at the Albany muni airport, Albany Oregon and has been there for a couple days.

Like I said, it looks like it has a Norweigen flag painted on each side of the nose so that country may have a Naval Airlift Command.

The stabs on the tail have a VERY promenant diehederal angle, almost extreme.

Another odd item was the 4 small engines with 2 bladed props.

The pilot and copilot section was set higher than the rest of the plane which required the fusolage to be bubbled over the drivers.

the nose gear was set very far forward and hinged just aft of the tip of the nose,

The body of it overall had a bit of a dehavaland look to it.

I will not be able to post pics for a couple days as I am leaving town in the a.m. and will be up near portland but if any of us in the group would like to have a look at it, it’ there.

I know that their’s an IPMS in the neighborhood up there, perhaps some verifications guys?

You sure it doesn’t belong to the Groom Lake Yacht Club ?[alien]

Seriously, sounds interesting. What if any military installations are up that a way?

A DH. Heron perhaps?

EDIT: Mystery solved, I think…

http://www.cfiamerica.com/Dehavilland-Heron.html

http://www.albanyaeroclub.com/DH-114.htm

Well, that’s no Norwegian flag. It’s the English flag.

The Norwegian flag is the one located in my signature :slight_smile:

Specifically, it’s the flag flown by a Royal Navy Rear (2-star) Admiral:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Rear-Admiral_-_Royal_Navy.svg

and the Royal Navy used DH Sea Herons as Admirals’ barges from the early 1960s through to the late 1970s. Not carrier-capable, though.

One of these, XM296, was sold into the civilian market, and eventually became US-registered as N82D. The Royal Navy lettering above the cabin cheat line was removed, and replaced by the wording Naval Air Command. This was the aircraft you saw.

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/4/6/8/1367864.jpg

Cheers,

Chris.

BINGO!!!

It’s the plane in the middle picture!

Thank you for posting these.

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These are great photos. Where were they taken?

Russian Fist - that plane must be there for the Albany Art and Air festival (which is more hot air balloons than planes) - I opted to drive over to Madras for the Airshow of the Cascades instead :slight_smile: