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

 

[DoinTime]

Who knows of the origins to the term "balls to the wall"

I have heard that a specific aircraft type had ball shaped knobs on top of the power levers and when fully advanced they nearly touched the instrument panel. No idea on the authenticity of this.

 

[WrightAvia]

Balls to the Wall
The phrase balls to the wall, meaning an all-out effort, sounds as if it is a reference to a part of the male anatomy, giving rise to some confusion as to what it originally meant. However, the original usage has nothing to do with anatomy, coming rather from the world of aviation.

On an airplane, the handles controlling the throttle and the fuel mixture are often topped with ball-shaped grips, referred to by pilots as (what else?) "balls." Pushing the balls forward, close to the front wall of the cockpit results in the most and richest mixture of fuel going to the engines and the highest possible speed.

The phrase dates to the early 1950s. Several veterans have written me noting their use of the term during the Korean War era. The earliest written citation is a bit later. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang contains a quote from 1966-67, in Harvey's Air War:

You know what happened on that first Doomsday Mission (as the boys call a big balls-to-the-wall raid) against Hanoi oil.
Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.

 

[Typhoon1244]

"Balls to the wall" goes back to the Industrial Revolution. When any big piece of machinery (locomotive, factory equipment, ship engine, etc.) was operating at full power, its governor was probably fully extended...that is the "balls" on the governor were swung out all the way "to the wall."

I'll try and find a reference for that, but I swear it's true.

 

[WrightAvia]

Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.Like balling the jack, this phrase is often thought to have arisen from railroad work. A speed governor on train engines would have round, metal weights at the end of arms. As the speed increased, the spinning balls would rise--being perpendicular to the walls at maximum speed. But there is no evidence to support this story. No use of the phrase is known to exist prior to the mid-1960s, and all the early cites are from military aviation.