Advertised on ebay, N11188, has serial number 9400L. Doesn't sound like a Piper serial number. FAA registry shows it as manufactured by Piper/Laudeman. It has standard category certification.
I think he means it has a standard cert & not an experimental. I thought that for a while they (FAA) were allowing people to build Standard cert aircraft if all the parts were pma'd
Grant
What years did they do that? Something is still strange here. Date of Mfr. is 1945. I don't think they had PMA back then. Let's say the Feds let you do this in 1960. Wouldn't the DOM be 1960? Wouldn't it still have the Piper serial Number?
My buddy bought a Taylorcraft L-2M several years ago and restored it. Prior to him purchasing it (a total basket case and I believe a salvage airplane), the previous owner returned the airworthiness certificate. My buddy applied for a new airworthiness certificate and now the FAA website has the make listed as Taylorcraft/Coburn (his last name). I'm not sure if it had to do with the airworthiness certificate or the salvage part, but that's how the FAA labeled it.
It was very recent. (a few years) Ask Lee Bude at Airframes. He was who I talked to about it. He pointed me to an FAA order or AC about the subject. It allowed a person to build from parts, provided that the parts were all approved etc.. It read so that you could manufacture an airplane from parts and call it what you wanted as long as it met the PA-18 TC. It is not a piper make because they did not "Make" it. It is however a PA-18 because the TC describes the model not the make. I don't think you can still do it without a production certificate but I understand some were built this way. I think it is how CC got started building thier new cubs.
I could be totally wrong but I remember something like this.
I have seen a couple of J3s done this way. I do think the AW date was when it was assembled from parts though. That is how Cub Crafters did it for years.
It was probably done under the "Spares and Surplus" program. It is usually caused by a lost "Data" plate, and the airplane cannot be identified from any serial number record at Piper. It is a long drawn out process, and I would not recommend doing it. Had a Pacer basketcase here that the data plate came up missing. Took about 18 months and a second owner to get through the FAA, and the aircraft is now called a Piper/Pierce.