How do people find an aircraft's manufacturer serial/construction number?

Vampyr · January 7, 2019

Do the manufacturers really make them known to the public? I can't think of any other way to find an aircraft's construction number unless you're able to walk right up to it and look at the data plate bolted on to the airframe.

This relatively new F-35 for example has a construction number listed as AF-116, and the Hornet in my signature is apparently 1448/C464. How the hell did the photographers figure this out?

Edited January 7, 2019 by Vampyr

mvsgas · January 7, 2019

The number are normally painted on the side of the aircraft. USN aircraft will have the Bu number While Air force number will be painted on the tail and the nose of the aircraft.

There are some website that will list numbers around.

I don't fully understand the USN and Bu numbers

On USAF aircraft the First 2 numbers are the year of the contract ( what year this aircraft was order) and then the serial number.

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/usafserials.html

http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/navyserials.html

Edited January 7, 2019 by mvsgas

Vampyr · January 7, 2019

No, those are registration numbers and are easy to find because as you said, they're visible on the outside of the aircraft.

The manufacturer's serial/construction number is different and is unrelated to the military serial. It's assigned by the manufacturer and is almost always hidden away on the inside of the aircraft.

Either someone's leaking these numbers to the public or they're intentionally made known to the public under freedom of information. If it's the latter, then I'd like to know what the source is.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Vampyr