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Aircraft of Theseus

Exactly!

The full Theseus treatment would need you to take [part of] the airframe that first plane discarded, then recertify it for use under its original serial number.

Is that allowed?

The way the Aircraft of Theseus is generally resolved is there’s a piece of metal called the “data plate”. This is the airplane as far as the FAA is concerned. I’ve been in a vintage biplane that was completely rebuilt from the data plate up. I think they got it for $40k.

It was worth it because without that, a home built airplane would have an experimental certificate and you couldn’t sell rides in it.

But does the data plate have an ID?

Yes, but it’s not necessarily unique like a VIN.

Does the data plate not limit the scope of what can be built around it?

In other words had Virgin Galactic built the VSS Enterprise around the data plate of a Cessna 172, would it then no longer have been an experimental aircraft?

It does limit, but I suspect a lot less for the rebuilt from ground up biplane, than for a certified for airline service aircraft (a commercial airliner).

The airplane has to match the data plate. Otherwise, it will fail inspections because of all those unauthorized modifications.

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