Mike wrote:
As an FM-2, it is a Wildcat VI, not a Martlet....
More importantly, if it is actually an
FM-2, it is NOT a "
Grumman" at all. It (the airplane itself) is an Eastern Aircraft (i.e. General Motors) Wildcat, although the design according to which it was built belonged to Grumman.
Per FAR 45.13(a) aircraft are
supposed to be "officially" identified and formally registered on the basis of who actually "built" it, not necessarily on the basis of who designed it or who owned the design rights at the time (i.e. the type certificate - if it has one.) Not all Warbirds have a stand-alone civilian (i.e FAA) type certification. The pre-G-111 Grumman Albatross is one example; there is no FAA-approved TC for a Grumman model G-64 and each surplus ex-military HU-16 series aircraft that has since flown as a privately-owned civilian aircraft was issued a TC specifically for it, just to codify its operating limitations and parameters.
That is why amateur-built "homebuilts" like a Thorp T-18 or a Vans RV-6 are not registered as such; each individual aircraft is formally identified and registered using the name of the individual who actually built it. Hence N843RF is a "
Robert L Evans Jr" model RV6A and N139G is a "
Griffith-Thorp" model T-18. That is also why Warbird "replicas" or aircraft "rebuilt" from either almost nothing or components of several different aircraft (i.e. restorations that are not straight forward rebuilds of a single, particular aircraft) are treated the same way, like N3139T which is a "North American-Driskill" P-51D (s/n 004) for example.
I know, I know, I know - almost "nobody" really does it that way in the "real world" especially in the Warbird community (who have always done things however they bloody well wanted to), but that doesn't change the fact that that is how it is supposed to be done according to the regs.
I realize that nobody is going to register a Vega-built B-17 Flying Fortress as anything other than a "Boeing" but based on FAR 45.13(a), it should really be registered as a "Lockheed/Vega" B-17 and an FG-1D is really a "Goodyear" Corsair and not a "Vought"
aircraft at all.
It's the difference between talking about the type design in general versus an individual aircraft in particular; yes, they are Boeing and Vought designs generally speaking, but in the examples I mentioned, they are Lockheed/Vega and Goodyear aircraft in particular - at least according to the standard published (but admittedly not even necessarily enforced) by the FAA.
As I have "ranted" here before, also according to the formal guidelines published by the FAA (ref. AC 21-12 and AC 21-13) when surplus military aircraft get a civilian registration and airworthiness certification with the FAA, they are (once again)
supposed to be identified using their original manufacturer's construction serial number - if it exists - and NOT a former military serial or Bureau number.
In the case of the Grumman Albatross again, that would mean a "G" series number between G-1 and G-464, but not one single civilian Albatross is registered using its actual Grumman serial number - which never changed by the way and that is the point of a serial number. Military serial numbers were usually changed every time a particular aircraft was transferred from one branch of the service to another.
Given all of that, I think it is "funny" that collectively speaking "we" all spend so much time nit-picking these things here.
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