xyzzy wrote:

I think a not-for-profit can get away with out any stock be owned.
Yes, you're right - brainfart on my side.

A nonprofit corporation can have shareholders, even if they are called
by a different name, like "voting members." My club does.

Even if the nonprofit doesn't have shareholders, it still has a board
and a method for electing that board. So I rephrase my question for
Mr. Smith: who is the board of the corporation? Who elects them? the
answer to the last question is also the answer, for all practical
purposes, to "who owns the corporation"?

No, the corporation can "own" the aircraft. It is a legal entity. The board
or members "control" the property by controlling the corporation. They "own"
neither the property or the corporation. I've been on the board of two
different NFP organizations. One had only a self sustaining board of
directors. (The BOD elected new BOD members as needed.) The other had both
members and a BOD.

Both of these organizations owned both real and personal property. No member
had any ownership interest in the property.