# North Carolina license plate: Standard first in flight

> The North Carolina standard first in flight license plate: format LLL-9999, for example HAI-4204, documented since 2009, car, van, and truck.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--north-carolina/standard-first-in-flight · Markdown version of the HTML page, which is canonical. Site map: https://vehiclesdb.com/llms.txt · Terms of use: https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/terms

Part of [North Carolina license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--north-carolina) (10 registration series).

![North Carolina (United States) license plate, Standard first in flight (documented since 2009)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-nc/us-nc-standard-first-in-flight/north-carolina-license-plate-standard-first-in-flight.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `LLL-9999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | ~2009 → today (documented from 2009; the format is likely older) |
| Class | standard |
| Issued for | car, van, truck |
| Plate size | 12 × 6 in |
| Colours | background #FFFFFF; characters #1F4E9C |
| Rear plate differs from the front | no |
| Checking a registration | The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued. |
| Series id | `us-nc-standard-first-in-flight` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--north-carolina/standard-first-in-flight) |

Sources:

- [§ 20-63(b) via FindLaw; ncleg.gov 403: the three-design election and the verbatim First in Flight description (words at top, Wright Brothers biplane over Kitty Hawk Beach); (a) one plate; (c) 100-foot daylight legibility](https://codes.findlaw.com/nc/chapter-20-motor-vehicles/nc-gen-st-sect-20-63.html)
- [NCDMV names 'First in Flight' as one of three standard designs available for private passenger and private hauler vehicles and states what it commemorates (the Wright Brothers' first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, 1903)](https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/title-registration/license-plates/Pages/default.aspx)
- [en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_North_Carolina)

## About this plate

NORTH CAROLINA FIRST IN FLIGHT, the default of the three statutory designs and the oldest continuously issued. It is also one of the five oldest US plate DESIGNS still in use by lineage (the First in Flight concept dates to 1982, when it won ALPCA's Plate of the Year, the only time North Carolina has been so honoured).

## How numbers are issued

Reported blocks for THIS design: AAA-1001 onwards from December 2010, reaching approximately LKE-7520 by mid-2025; the immediately preceding stretch of the same design ran ZNE-1001 to ZZZ-9999 from October 2009. First letters are therefore in the A-L range and are expected to run to N before exhaustion.

## Before and after

| Relation | Series | Years |
|---|---|---|
| It replaced | [Standard first in flight red](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--north-carolina/standard-first-in-flight-red-2007) | documented 2007 to 2009 |

## Other standard plates here

- [Standard national state mottos](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--north-carolina/standard-national-state-mottos) (documented since 2019)
- [Standard first in freedom](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--north-carolina/standard-first-in-freedom) (documented since 2015)
- [Standard first in flight red](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--north-carolina/standard-first-in-flight-red-2007) (documented 2007 to 2009)

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-nc/us-nc-standard-first-in-flight.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/north-carolina?series=us-nc-standard-first-in-flight
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/us-nc` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "us-nc-standard-first-in-flight"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

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Open data, CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a visible credit to VehiclesDB and a link (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/attribution). Plate images show sample serials and are not open data (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/image-license). Dataset commit db0ec0a: https://github.com/vehiclesdb/vehiclesdb