The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Does anyone know what the N-Number font is that was used on a 1950 A model vertical stabalizer? I am about ready to have some stencils made and want the font to be correct.

Thanks, Mike

Why aren't you going to match what's there?

I have over twenty five years in the printing business (5th generation). I have an extensive font library to match to fonts. I have spent. I have spent considerable time trying to figure out Cessna's font of choice for labeling and placards. There isn't a clear choice. And I'll bet you spend hours looking for a match and then you will spend hours matching the letter spacing (kerning).

I would suggest using a thin onion paper (tracing paper) to trace your N number. Then have that scanned and a mask cut. This will still take some manual tweaking I'll bet.

Just being lazy I guess, figured someone might know off hand. I also polished most of the old N-number off. Hopefully there will be enough there to allow me to trace it.

Amarillo USAF appears to be very close to the original font used. It's a freeware font, and can be downloaded from several sources. It can be used to make a vinyl mask to make your life easier. You may investigate more to make sure that the compression and letter spacing are correct, but it should be a good head start.

Thanks Ryan! That will help a lot!

While investigating the Amarila USAF font I came across a link to a font designed to meet FARs though not necessarily the special FARs our 170s can be marked under. On my IPad till tonight so I didn't investigate it.

Here are a few examples of original factory number fonts; N1715D is a 1951 C-170A, N4583C is a 1953 C-170B.

It looks like the fonts did not change over the years. I do not have a picture of the 1951 C-170A vert. stab. N-number.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

While the font is not specified, the FARs do detail some restrictions to include the width of the stroke, the width of each letter and of course it's height and the spacing between each letter. You can not just use a computer font to type it out. Yes if you know what your doing with your computer you can use a font and probably come real close if not meet the FARs. The font I mention earlier is PIXymbolsFARmarks. It is $39. The font is suppose to meet the FARs but I can not tell without buying it. The samples I saw do not have the correct spacing.

FAR 45.29 (c) (d) and (e) describe what the stroke, width and spacing for each letter should be. For our aircraft you can use 45.22 (b) (1) to set the height of the letters to "2 minimum. Once the height is set the other dimensions fall into place.

BTW could someone confirm the height of the original numbers" Was it 3" on the tail?

Bruce Fenstermacher wrote:
BTW could someone confirm the height of the original numbers" Was it 3" on the tail?

Paul Wood, calling Paul Wood, come in Paul, got your ears on Paul? Bruce needs to know the original height on the N-numbers on your vertical stabilizer.

Bruce Fenstermacher wrote: FAR 45.29 (c) (d) and (e) describe what the stroke, width and spacing for each letter should be.

Comparatively speaking, just looking at the pictures above, the spacing is different on the tail and wing numbers, and they are original from the factory.

I would have bet money they were 3" but if I can trust my harbor freight tape measure they measure 2".
Paul

Paul-
Wow, that response was almost as quick as my response to ferry Franks 172TD!

2" checks with what I measured today. Length is about 11.5" but that will vary by n-number of course.

I tried finding Amarillo USAF font on-line.....who knew they charge you to download a font. Crazy! I am hoping our mx backshop guys will be able to duplicate the tracing I did today, if not it will be off to the sign shop to get it done. I saw some font on the side of the age equipment that looks really similar and hopefully will match up. It's amazing what a case of beer can get you on an Air Force Base!!!

C170U2 wrote:2" checks with what I measured today. Length is about 11.5" but that will vary by n-number of course.

I tried finding Amarillo USAF font on-line.....who knew they charge you to download a font. Crazy! I am hoping our mx backshop guys will be able to duplicate the tracing I did today, if not it will be off to the sign shop to get it done. I saw some font on the side of the age equipment that looks really similar and hopefully will match up. It's amazing what a case of beer can get you on an Air Force Base!!!

I got mine for free, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't from a torrent. PM me your e-mail address and I'll send it to you.

Email sent.

Thanks!!

Mike

Just curious....what was the name of the font used?