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Duplicate Mooney Serial Numbers?


0TreeLemur

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Here's a baffling question.   Friday I received notice from the FAA to renew the registration on our '67 C.  Today I went to the FAA registry and searched for our aircraft using the serial number, figuring there would only be one Mooney with S/N 670066.  Wrong.   To my surprise I found that there is an M20F with the same S/N listed!   The registry page provides an a/w assignment date for the F of 10/7/66.   Shouldn't the S/N for that Mooney start with 66 not 67?   The a/w cert. for our a/c was assigned in Feb. '67. 

Anyone know if Mooney ever assigned the same S/N to two airframes?  Seems unlikely.   I suspect that the FAA database is in error, or maybe someone F fat-fingered the S/N.   Anyone seen anything like this before?   Is this something I should be concerned about?   The FAA says that the a/w cert. for the F was revoked on 9/15/2017.  I don't see an NTSB report.  A search of Kathryn's report shows a photo show the F sitting gear up on a runway in 2014.

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Hmmmm...

More likely a fat finger at the FAA...

Serial number systems evolved out of the murk in 66...

This evolution included the year of manufacture in the number... not just sequential...

Later on, each airframe got a number... so all Ovations got 29 as the first two numbers...

Either way... the side effects of a duplicate number can be disastrous.... Related to accidental parts mixing and mis-matching...

So, if a duplicate were to show up accidentally during the allocation of S/Ns... the person that controls the S/Ns would be remiss about the control aspect... they would cross out, initial, explain the logic, and assign the next one...

Serial numbers have a reason... to be unique. :)

PP thoughts only, not a manufacturing engineer...

Best regards,

-a-

 

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1 hour ago, 0TreeLemur said:

Here's a baffling question.   Friday I received notice from the FAA to renew the registration on our '67 C.  Today I went to the FAA registry and searched for our aircraft using the serial number, figuring there would only be one Mooney with S/N 670066.  Wrong.   To my surprise I found that there is an M20F with the same S/N listed!   The registry page provides an a/w assignment date for the F of 10/7/66.   Shouldn't the S/N for that Mooney start with 66 not 67?   The a/w cert. for our a/c was assigned in Feb. '67. 

Anyone know if Mooney ever assigned the same S/N to two airframes?  Seems unlikely.   I suspect that the FAA database is in error, or maybe someone F fat-fingered the S/N.   Anyone seen anything like this before?   Is this something I should be concerned about?   The FAA says that the a/w cert. for the F was revoked on 9/15/2017.  I don't see an NTSB report.  A search of Kathryn's report shows a photo show the F sitting gear up on a runway in 2014.

It would appear that there are duplicate serial numbers for different models produced.

Clarence

48387A83-027B-4AFA-80D6-3CB4059945E8.jpeg

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Interesting how the year became included in the S/N in 66...

And fell back out of the numbering system in 71...

There are a few Mooneys that were built in the style of one year, but got completed months earlier...

And others that were started in one year... and finished their test mule status the following year...

Best regards,

-a-

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/16/2020 at 10:10 PM, carusoam said:

Interesting how the year became included in the S/N in 66...

And fell back out of the numbering system in 71...

There are a few Mooneys that were built in the style of one year, but got completed months earlier...

And others that were started in one year... and finished their test mule status the following year...

Best regards,

-a-

So this would presumably explain why a 70 model 20F would be registered as a 69?

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On 8/16/2020 at 10:10 PM, carusoam said:

Interesting how the year became included in the S/N in 66...

And fell back out of the numbering system in 71...

A change of corporate ownership will have far-reaching effects, often non-intuitive and outwardly strange, to make the new acquisition fit the existing corporate mold of the owners. 

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