Heya Guys,

I came across this picture: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1179154/L/ on Airliners.net, duh. Beautiful picture you might say, and you are correct. But I was wondering, why isn't there a nr. on the belly? And what does it say?

I thought this was the best place to ask and I hope you know the answers, it isn't that important though, just wondering like I said.

Thanks in advance and have fun (flying)

Yours,
Sven

Most likely, this is a "backup" aircraft. The numbers are some sort of adhesive tape, so they can be very easily put on, or vise versa ripped off, in case of a malfunction or they want to keep the airframe times equal.

Ok cool, thanks for the info

During training season it's common that none of the aircraft have numbers on them yet, just as seen in the photo. The writing inside the star-circle is a serial number of some sort.

Just to add to what LD was saying, The serial nmber inside the stars is the aircrafts own production year and number... Example. 86-256 or 87-346...

P.S. I do belive that all the pilots get there numbers on their jets after the delta formation is performed and finalized. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this part.

Falcon56

i am with Falcon on this one....i believe when i was watching one of the documentary's on the Military channel it stated that the numbers were after the delta formation and they completed their "Thunderbird Training"