Reply #25: Like I said in #14 ....

[DeadBroke]

... when it comes to airplanes and cars it may be comparing apples to oranges. It's also just as difficult to compare the DMV rules and regulations in my state to those of another state; BUT it is true that the vehicle ownership titles I still have for cars long gone, sold for their parts, can still be looked up by DMV and considered whole.

To demonstrate this I'll share an experience: I actually had a problem with this very issue when I divorced. I filled out all the required paperwork - Case Information Statements - and I didn't list those two cars as property; after all I sold them part by part, but my soon to be ex-wife's attorney who had access to the contents our safety deposit box and all important papers claimed the cars existed and his "proof" was his ex-cop investigator's search of DMV records. I was accused in court papers he filed of failing to report all the property - two classic cars worth, in his opinion tens of thousands of dollars each.

But back to airplanes; I can assure you that my Brother owned numerous airplanes during his lifetime and that his widow still has registrations and boxes full of other related paperwork on all his airplanes including those he needed to dismantle to keep the rest of his fleet aflight. His planes were all very old US Army Aircorps surplus that mostly flew all over South America, (carrying what he called the 4 Ms - mail, missionaries, military and medicine) and as I explained before, he's strip plane X to keep planes Y & Z flying. It was impossible to find parts for 40-50 year old planes and tearing one down for parts isn't unusual. Having the papers for X doesn't mean X is still around or is airworthy. Whatever is left of plane X, if anything is still left of it, may probably be rotting away in some field in Chile or Argentina.

Using your theory, my Sister-in-Law is the proud owner of dozens and dozens of airworthy real planes.

The USS Arizona, sunk on 12-7-41 was never decommissioned. It will never sail again, but it's kept active by the Navy to honor those who were aboard; and airlines can do the same.