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A buzz number was a large letter and number combination applied to United States Air Forcemilitary aircraft in the years immediately after World War II, through the early 1960s. They were applied for general aerial identification of aircraft, but particularly for the identification of aircraft guilty of "buzzing" (very-low-altitude high-speed passes) over populated areas.[citation needed]
The first two letters of a buzz number indicated the type and designation of an aircraft while the last three were generally the last three digits of the aircraft serial number. Air Force fighters used buzz numbers starting with the letter F (or P, when fighters were designated as "pursuit" aircraft before June 1948), while bombers started with the letter B. For example, a P-51 Mustang would have a buzz number such as FF-230 while an F-86 Sabre might be FU-910. A B-66 Destroyer would have a buzz number such as BB-222. One of the last Air Force fighters to carry a buzz number was the F-4 Phantom II (FJ), then called the F-110 Spectre by the Air Force.
List of buzz codes
This table lists U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army aircraft by buzz-number prefix. Note that some aircraft types changed prefixes during their career, while other prefixes were re-used after an earlier type was retired.
^"North American YF-93". Fact Sheets. National Museum of the United States Air Force. Archived from the original on 2014-10-27. Retrieved 2017-07-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Bibliography
Adcock, Al (1992). C-123 Provider in action. Aircraft In Action. Vol. 124. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications. ISBN978-0-89747-276-0.
Bowers, Peter M.; David W. Menard (2006). Buzz Numbers: The Explanations and Regulations Behind America's Military Aircraft Identification System. North Branch, MN: Specialty Press. ISBN978-1-58007-103-1.