In Reply to: Moto-Tug Serial Numbers (BNO 40 XXXX) posted by Paladin (Bob In PA) on December 19, 2009 at 20:56:49:
There were both BNO 25's and BNO 40's. As far as I know, tne serial numbers ran from 1 to 3025 or 1 to 3050 or so (no one knows for sure). We do not know if the BNO 25's and the BNO 40's were assigned different serial number blocks. There are just so danged few of these tractors that survived, unfortunately.
The "40" and the "25" referred to the weight of the tractor and it's ability to haul things. The "40"'s had duallies and lower gear ratios than the "25"'s
With respect to Naval aircraft, JockOR is exactly right BUT, unlike the Army Air Force back then, the Navy did not include any prefixes to indicate the year the order was placed or the type of aircraft. An aircraft was simply BuNo XXXXX and that was that.
I am also wondering if the "BNO" was not Ford's idea of how to follow the Navy BuNo system, only with tugs instead of aircraft. Of course, this would not answer the question of tugs that were sold for civilian use, and some were.
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