| Air Force |
The serial system is fairly straight forward and serials can be divided nowadays into four major categories:
Newly produced aircraft flying before delivery can be seen with the two-digit ranking number within the production batch, making 01, 02 and 03 very often seen
on prototypes, although each manufacturer may use a different number system, especially when testflying production aircraft.
Aircraft of the Air Academies all have the aircraft specific number as a large two- or three digit number on the fuselage or tail.
In order to obtain the full five digit serial (see below) the specific regiment digits are added.
The three-digit serials are reserved for aircraft on test. Aircraft used by the test center CFTE at Xi'an can be seen using this serial range,
but also product development aircraft from factories like XAC and CAC use this range. CAC at Chengdu nowadays use a four digit system with the first
two digits for the model ("10" for J10) followed by one digit to indicate the model like "3" for the fourth J10 version followed by one digit for the production sequence ranking.
The four digit serials are dedicated to special regiments. The "5xax" pattern is used by the Air Force for reconnaissance regiments,
the "6xax" pattern is used for the 15th Airborne Corps, where "a" identifies the regiment and xx is a unique number
within the regiment. In earlier days "3aax" and "4aax" could be found for Air Force reconnaissance regiments.
Transport aircraft have a civilian registration in the B-4xxx range which is also misused by some Army Mi-17 helicopters.
The 9aax number is used by the Navy, see below.
Five-digit serial system from 2012
Starting end 2011 many figher regiments were transfered to or merged into Brigades. As a result new five-digit serial numbers started to appear in April 2012.
Although the system still has to be fully understood the following logic is believed to hold:
The five-digit serial follows the aaxax pattern, with the Brigade number derived from aaa minus 611 and xx being the indiviual aircraft within the Brigade.
Examples observed includes 69278, being aircraft #28 from 697-611=86 Brigade. With this system again a Brigade can have up to 100 within the serial system.
The old allocations (2005-2012)
The five-digit serials followed the "abxax" pattern in which the "a"s indicate thed Division number.
Divisions that were identified by a number (transport, fighter and attack divisions) had a serial range with the first and fourth digit equal to the Division number plus eleven, thereby correcting some mismatches in the pre-2005 system.
Up to 2005, when the fighters still had red and blue painted serials the second digit indicated the regiment within the Division,
starting with a "0" for the first regiment, effectively reserving 100 srials for each regiment. With the change of
colour to yellow, the maximum number of codes reduced to 50 for each regiment. The second, third and last digit are used together,
with 000 up to 049 for the first regiment, 050 up to 099 for the second regiment and 100 up to 150 for the third regiment within the Division.
Lead-in trainers within the fighter regiments usually take the first couple or last couple within the range.
As an example JJ7A 50533 belonged to the second regiment (code 053) within the 53-11=42nd Division, being the 125th Regiment.
Also the Military Region Training Bases and some special Regiments used to be within this scheme using the 6xaxa range.
Basis training was done in Divisions with serials in the 7xxxx range.
Below is a cross reference list of the serial ranges for 2005-2012. Non-active Divisions are omitted.
| Serial range | Air Div. |
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| | |
| 1bx2x | 1st |
| 1bx3x | 2nd |
| 1bx4x | 3rd |
| 1bx5x | 4th |
| 1bx6x | 5th |
| 1bx7x | 6th |
| 1bx8x | 7th |
| 1bx9x | 8th |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 2bx0x | 9th |
| 2bx1x | 10th |
| 2bx2x | 11th |
| 2bx3x | 12th |
| 2bx4x | 13th |
| 2bx5x | 14th |
| 2bx6x | 15th |
| 2bx7x | |
| 2bx8x | |
| 2bx9x | 18th |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 3bx0x | 19th |
| 3bx1x | 20th |
| 3bx2x | 21st |
| 3bx3x | 22nd |
| 3bx4x | 23rd |
| 3bx5x | 24th |
| 3bx6x | |
| 3bx7x | 26th |
| 3bx8x | 27th* |
| 3bx9x | 28th |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 4bx0x | 29th |
| 4bx1x | 30th |
| 4bx2x | |
| 4bx3x | |
| 4bx4x | 33rd |
| 4bx5x | 34th |
| 4bx6x | |
| 4bx7x | 36th |
| 4bx8x | 37th |
| 4bx9x | |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 5bx3x | 42nd |
| 5bx5x | 44th |
| 6bx1x | Shenyang MR TB |
| 6bx2x | Beijing MR TB |
| 6bx3x | Lanzhou MR TB |
| 6bx4x | Jinan MR TB |
| 6bx5x | Nanjing MR TB |
| 6bx6x | Guangzhou MR TB |
| 6bx7x | Chengdu MR TB |
| 6bx8x | FTTC |
| 6bx9x | SMTU |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 7bx1x | 1st FA |
| 7bx2x | 2nd FA |
| 7bx3x | 3rd FA |
| 7bx4x | 4th FA |
| 7bx5x | 5th FA |
| 7bx6x | 6th FA |
| 7bx7x | 7th FA |
| 7bx8x | 13th FA |
| 7bx9x | NTS |
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FA: Flying Acadamy
FTTC: Flight Test & Training Center
MR TB: Military Region Training Base.
NTS: Navigator Training School
SMTU: Special Missiles Testing Unit
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The 8xxxx and 9xxxx series are used by the Navy and the Army, see below.
The old allocations (pre-2005)
In the early days a four digit serial system was used in the axax format with aa identifying the Division.
This changed into a five -digit system that was unchanged until 2005. Before mid 2005 the serial allocation was as listed below.
| Serial range | Air Div. |
| | |
| 1bx2x | 1st |
| 1bx3x | 2nd |
| 1bx4x | 3rd |
| 1bx5x | 4th |
| 1bx6x | 5th |
| 1bx7x | 6th |
| 1bx8x | 7th |
| 1bx9x | 8th |
| 1bx0x | 9th |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 2bx1x | 20th |
| 2bx2x | 21st |
| 2bx3x | 22nd |
| 2bx4x | 23rd |
| 2bx5x | 24th |
| 2bx6x | 25th |
| 2bx7x | 26th |
| 2bx8x | 27th |
| 2bx9x | 28th |
| 2bx0x | 29th |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 3bx1x | 10th |
| 3bx2x | 11th |
| 3bx3x | 12th |
| 3bx4x | 13th |
| 3bx5x | 14th |
| 3bx6x | 15th |
| 3bx7x | 16th |
| 3bx8x | 17th |
| 3bx9x | 18th |
| 3bx0x | 19th |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 4bx1x | 40th |
| 4bx2x | 41st |
| 4bx3x | 42nd |
| 4bx4x | 43rd |
| 4bx5x | 44th |
| 4bx6x | 45th |
| 4bx7x | 46th |
| 4bx8x | 47th |
| 4bx9x | 48th |
| 4bx0x | 49th |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 5bx1x | 30th |
| 5bx2x | 31st |
| 5bx3x | 32nd |
| 5bx4x | 33rd |
| 5bx5x | 34th |
| 5bx6x | 35th |
| 5bx7x | 36th |
| 5bx8x | 37th |
| 5bx9x | 38th |
| 5bx0x | 39th |
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| Serial range | Air Div. |
| 6bx1x | 1st FA |
| 6bx2x | 2nd FA |
| 6bx3x | 3rd FA |
| 6bx4x | 4th FA |
| 6bx5x | 5th FA |
| 6bx6x | 6th FA |
| 6xx7b | 7th FA |
| 6xx8b | 8th FA |
| 7bx6x | FTTC |
| 7bx7x | 12th FA |
| 7bx8x | 13th FA |
| 7bx9x | NTS |
| 7bx0x | 50th |
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| Photos |
The second first flight of a new Chinese fighter in 2003 was on December 13th with the flight of the CAC JL-9 (FTC-2000) from Chengdu.
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This Y5 flies with a yet unknown independent Air Force Regiment.
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| Naval Air Force |
The Naval serial system is an extension of the Air Force system in that the five digit serial starts with a 9, used in the 9bxcx format, where
the "b" indicates the regiment and the c the Division:
| Serial range | Air Division |
| 8bx0x | Air Academy |
| 8bx1x | 1st |
| 8bx2x | 2nd |
| 8bx3x | 3rd |
| 8bx4x | 4th |
| 8bx5x | 5th |
| 8bx6x | 6th |
| 8bx7x | 7th |
| 8bx8x | 8th |
| 8bx9x | 9th |
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| Serial range | Air Regiment |
| 9xx0 | Air Academy |
| 9xx1 | 1st Independent Regiment |
| 9xx2 | 2nd Independent Regiment |
| 9xx3 | 3rd Independent Regiment |
| 9xx4 | 4th Independent Regiment |
| | |
| 9xx6 | 6rd Independent Regiment |
| 9xx7 | 7th Independent Regiment |
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| Photos |
These Q5 are based at Qingdao and presumably fly along the Qingdao city with a small unknown jet (J5?) stuck away at the port entry.
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83185 is the third regiment within the 8th air division and therefore numbered teh 24th Regiment
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| Army Aviation |
The serial system is also based on a five-digit number, most of the time preceded by "LH" for
LuJun HangKongBing (Army Aviation). The first digit is a "9" or is left out, resulting in a four-digit
number. Therefore the ranges to be seen are "LH9bcxx" or LHbcxx".
The "b" indicates the Regiment the helicopter is flying with.
The number versus Regiment alocation is presented in the table below:
| Serial range | Regiment |
| LH90cxx | Army Aviation Training Regiment |
| LH91cxx | 1st Army Aviation Regiment |
| LH92cxx | 2nd Army Aviation Regiment |
| LH93cxx | 3rd Army Aviation Regiment |
| LH94cxx | 4th Army Aviation Regiment |
| LH95cxx | 5th Army Aviation Regiment |
| LH96cxx | 6th Army Aviation Regiment |
| LH97cxx | 7th Army Aviation Regiment |
| LH98cxx | 8th Army Aviation Regiment |
| LH99cxx | 9th Army Aviation Regiment |
| LH910cxx | 10th Army Aviation Regiment |
The "c" digit is an indication for the helicopter or aircraft type.
| Code | Aircraft type |
| 0 | Transports |
| 1 | Alouette |
| 2 | S70C-2 |
| 3 | SA342L |
| 4 | Z11 |
| 7 | Mi-17/171 |
| 8 | Mi-8, Z8 |
| 9 | Z9 |
The final two digits are unique within the regiment. Some Mi-171 additions were delivered using CUAxx serials presumably indicating "China United Airlines".
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| Photos |
The prototype army version of the Z8 (SA321 copy) did not include sponsoons around the wheel struts.
The first noted serial LH97802 fits nice in the system.
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The Sikorsky S70C-2 started life with the Army with serial range LH02xx. Nowadays some of the 24 helis delivered can be seen with a five-digit serial.
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