Problem with JPanel

[ibanez270dx]

Hi everybody,
I'm really new to Java and I'm making the GUI portion of an applet... Everything works and looks fine, except when I try to put the componants into a JPanel container... I've searched all over the web for help on it, but to no avail. If anyone can tell me where and what my error is, it would be greatly appreciated! My code is as follows:

import java.awt.*; 
import java.applet.*; 
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.Container;

public class gui5 extends Applet  
 { 
  public JLabel tailnum_Label; 
  public JButton tailnum_okButton; 
  public JTextField tailnum_TextField; 

  public void tailnumber()
      {  
       tailnum_Label = new JLabel("Please enter your Tail Number"); 
       tailnum_okButton = new JButton(" OK "); 
       tailnum_TextField = new JTextField("",180); 
  
       JPanel tailnum = new JPanel();
          tailnum.setLayout(null);
          tailnum.setBackground(new Color(214,223,239));
          tailnum.setBorder( BorderFactory.createLineBorder( Color.BLACK ) );

      	  tailnum_Label.setBounds(10,0,180,20);
     	  tailnum_TextField.setBounds(10,20,180,20);
     	  tailnum_okButton.setBounds(65,45,70,30);   

     	  tailnum.add(tailnum_Label);
      	  tailnum.add(tailnum_okButton); 
       	  tailnum.add(tailnum_TextField); 
      } 

 }

Thanks in advance,
- Jeff

[hardwired]

//  <applet code="Gui5Rx" width="400" height="400"></applet>
import java.awt.*; 
import javax.swing.*;

public class Gui5Rx extends JApplet  
{ 
    public JLabel tailnum_Label; 
    public JButton tailnum_okButton; 
    public JTextField tailnum_TextField; 

    // Applets use this method like applications use constructors.
    public void init()
    {  
        tailnum_Label = new JLabel("Please enter your Tail Number"); 
        tailnum_okButton = new JButton(" OK "); 
        tailnum_TextField = new JTextField("",180); 

        JPanel tailnum = new JPanel();
        tailnum.setLayout(null);
        tailnum.setBackground(new Color(214,223,239));
        tailnum.setBorder( BorderFactory.createLineBorder( Color.BLACK ) );

        tailnum_Label.setBounds(10,0,180,20);
        tailnum_TextField.setBounds(10,20,180,20);
        tailnum_okButton.setBounds(65,45,70,30);

        tailnum.add(tailnum_Label);
        tailnum.add(tailnum_okButton);
        tailnum.add(tailnum_TextField);
        System.out.println("default layout manager of " +
                            getClass().getName() + " = " +
                            getLayout().getClass().getName());
        Container cp = getContentPane();
        cp.add(tailnum);  // default center section
    } 
 }

[ibanez270dx]

Thanks! I actually got it to work late last night, but its a little different. Your code definitely gives me more insight on how it should work. Thanks again!

- Jeff