Airframe serial numbers

[Pat Elliott]

Pardon what might be a dumb question, But I ran across something that has me a bit confused.
My factory piper data plate which is attached the the luggage door has SN-XXXX, there is a plate on the baggage door frame that shows the part# for the fuselage with another serial number, and the one inside the tail on the bulkhead is a third number. And each wing is also different.

I have the logbooks from day one. no gaps, nor damage history, nor long periods of unuse.

I would have thought that piper would use the same serial numbers. is this normal?

[Kristin Winter]

That is common, IMX. Piper would do all sorts of mix and match things on the line. For example, a plane might start down the line with a 260 fuselage, then they get an order for a twin, and boom, that fuselage now becomes a twin.

[JIMICS2452]

Ages ago an old Piper employee told me not to worry about that because they didn't when they were putting the assemblies together.

[Charles Schefer]

I had the same question and was quite worried when I found that same pattern on my plane a year ago. Cliff from Herritage Aero assured me the same as Kristin just said... this was common. They serialized different parts of the assemblies. You will find similar data plates in your wheel wells also.

- Charles