Live Flight Tracking

Hi:

I have flight log information from an ASDI vendor and one of the fields is "aircraft type."

Now I know that the manufacturer/model contractions follow the FAA system (section 5 of http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/CNT.pdf), and that suffixes indicate certified equipment (http://flightaware.com/about/faq_aircra ... suffix.rvt).

But several of my records also have prefixes as well. The prefixes are almost always one letter but there are also cases where the prefix is two characters (a number and another number or letter). The most common prefixes are T, L, and M. For reference here are some examples:
T/BE20/G
T/H25B/Q
L/PC12/G
M/C560/W
01/C340/G
H/B703/W
B/B701/Q
F/B752/E
02/C172/A
1H/C501/U
05/PA18/U
56/XL/W
2H/C56X/L
3L/BE36/G
In all cases I am interested in the string before the first "/" (the aircraft manufacturer and model is in between the two "/" and the equipment type is after the second "/").

Can someone explain what these prefixes are? Thanks in advance for any help!

Enough of these are non-standard it's difficult to say if the ones that do overlap with the standards for prefixes actually mean the same thing. You'll probably need to contact your vendor for support.

Mark:

Ok, thanks. I am not familiar enough with this to know whether this was something obvious or not, and I guess it is not!

MP

Data looks high qualitay.

Field Definitions for 'aircraft_types' file.
http://www.fly.faa.gov/ASDI/asdidocs/ai ... itions.txt

aircraft_types
http://www.fly.faa.gov/ASDI/asdidocs/aircraft_types.txt

I wanted to first belatedly thank everyone for the pointers: very helpful!

A quick follow-up on the ac_types:
mtnbiker2005's list of aircraft types, http://www.fly.faa.gov/ASDI/asdidocs/aircraft_types.txt. is super helpful, since it has more models than the FAA source I linked. FlightAware seems to be using a more extensive list to generate lists like http://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/.

For example here are two planes in the FlightAware database but not in the FAA list above:
C510: Cessna Citation Mustang (twin-jet) (C510) Aircraft, http://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/C510
HXB: Experimental 100kts-200kts (-) (HXB) Aircraft, http://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/HXB

Is there another actype list used here at FlightAware which supplements the FAA list?

Sorry to bump my thread but was hoping maybe Mark or Daniel could point out if there is a more comprehensive list of aircraft types at FA than http://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/ (this is just airplanes which are airborne at the moment).

MP

The list on the ASDI website is unmaintained and ancient. For the latest use FAA JO 7340.2 as amended but expect there is some nonstandard data that appears in ASDI (G5 for GLF5, LR60 for LJ60, etc) due to mistaken pilots or controllers that your vendor may not have sanitized.

Thanks Mark: I have been using the FAA JO 7340.2 list here, http://www.faa.gov/documentlibrary/media/order/cnt.pdf

I found several ac_types which are not there but do seem to be in the FA database (see below). I guess these are the non-standard acronyms you mean. Does FA have a list of these acronyms? Or perhaps there is a full list of aircraft types including those not currently in the air?

Example aircraft types not in FAA JO 7340.2 but in FA (http://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/<model>)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BE90
C510
CL64
COL4
G150
HS25
HXB
M20
M20J
MO20
P28 (not in FA)
PA28

Like Mark said, those are unofficial type codes and input incorrectly by pilots/planners. BE90 should be BE9L, C510 should be legit and is missing from FAA for some reason, CL64 is CL60 officially, G150 is legit, HS25 should be H25A or more likely H25B as not many of the former still alive.

Please contact customer service about purchasing our database of aircraft types.

Mark:

OK thanks. Need to check with the home base to see if there are funds for this purchase!

Check this list

ICAO Aircraft Codes
ICAO Aircraft Type Designators with Wake Category used to classify aircraft types that are most commonly provided with air traffic services.
http://www.flugzeuginfo.net/table_accodes_en.php

Thanks mtnbiker2005! Yeh that has a few more models not in the other lists