Grumman-581 wrote:
Given the going prices for warbirds, if the data plate survived,
someone will "rebuild" the aircraft... A few years back, I stumbled
across Chino airport in SoCal... They have quite a few warbird
restoration shops over there... Spoke with one guy and he said that if
someone gives them a data plate, they can rebuild the rest of the
aircraft all around it from the blueprints that they had or could
get...

I saw an FAA safety seminar with a speaker from the local FSDO. He said
more and more companies are dispatching reps to accident sites to
confirm the S/N off of the data plate. The company determines if the
plane is a complete loss in their eyes separate from insurance
companies. The company certifies the plane when built and then certifies
the plane is a complete loss and effectively ending the plane's
(actually the S/N's) life. IIRC, Bell helicopter lists these S/N on
their website.

For these warbirds, I'm guessing most are probably in the Experimental
category so probably the dataplate doesn't mean too much other than from
the historical perspective but that is a pure guess.

Gerald