Useless trivia question

[charley varrick]

Anyone know why USA's country registration letter is "N"?

 

[T-Gates]

Nipple

Next Question.......

 

[labbats]

"N"ope

 

[chperplt]

When an international convention met in Paris in 1919 to decide upon matters of national registration, the first-ever flight across the Atlantic had just been completed by the American NC-4 flying boats. Their worldwide popularity led to the selection of the letter N for U.S.-registered aircraft

 

[fr0g]

I believe that the "N" once stood for National..

 

[Typhoon1244]

Just for kicks: Gene Roddenberry decided Starfleet vessels would be registered "NCC" (as in NCC-1701) because the airplanes he'd grown up with carried "NC-" registrations...the original code for "U.S. Commercial.")

As for the current "N," I think it stands for "North America."

 

[chperplt]

My answer is correct... I asked Jeeves!!!!! (www.ask.com)

 

[whereamI]

The more important question is why does Tonga use A3, or Andorra C3, or Gabon TR. Hopefully someday I can fly in Swaziland, they fly in 3D. I wonder if they issue those cool red and blue lensed glasses to use when flying.

 

[flywithastick]

Typhoon alluded to it, but they started out as "NC". the question may come back to what "NC" stands for, which I'd like to know myself. BTW, my J-3 has an "NC" reg. no, although the guy who painted it omitted the "C". One of these days, I'm going to repaint the nos to NCxxx. 20 yrs ago, the old nostalgic equipment didn't do much for me. Now, it's pretty interesting. a sign of getting old maybe?

Here's a little trivia quid pro quo... know where giving the "whole 9 yards" comes from? That used to be the length of machine gun ammo belts during WWII (.50 cal I believe).

 

[WrightAvia]

You're correct. 9 yards was about the length of the ammo belts. When the pilot emptied the gun on an adversary...it was giving him the whole 9 yards.

Main Entry: triv·ia
Pronunciation: 'tri-vE-&
Function: noun plural but singular or plural in construction
Etymology: (assumed) New Latin, back-formation from Latin trivialis
Date: 1920
: unimportant matters : trivial facts or details; also singular in construction : a quizzing game involving obscure facts