[Frank_Olynyk]

Rod,
I think you are confused about British aircraft serial numbers. The letter in the serial does not indicate the flight. Basically, when aircraft were purchased for the RFC (and the RNAS, and later the RAF) they were assigned a serial number. They started at 1 and went up to 10000, being allocated in blocks for the RFC and the RNAS. When 10000 was hit, a new series was started, with the letter "A" as prefix, which went from A1 to 9999. They then continued B1 to B9999, C1 to C9999, etc, up into the letter "J" by the end of World War 1. When the letter prefix was introduced, the letter "N" was set aside for the RNAS, and it used the full range N1 to N9999. "G" and "I" were not used, although captured German aircraft were given G serial numbers; aircraft captured on the Italian front were given AG serials. This numbering sequence continued between the wars, although with K they started at 1000, skipping K1 to K999. M was skipped, and N was reused. "O", "Q", "U" and "Y" were skipped. When Z9999 was reached, the sequence was changed to double letters, AA100 to AA999, AB100 to AB999, etc. By the end of World War 2 they had gotten to the end of VN. Today the system is still in use, with allocations in the Zx block, but I do not know where they are at.

All allocations from K through XZ have been covered in a large series of books published by Air Britain, the RAF Aircraft Serials series.

Frank.