My wife is nervous about this . . .
And she's nervous because she is a lawyer.
"AIUI the only real difference between using a corporation (typically a Delaware one) and using a US citizen (as I do; this particular chap owns about 200 planes now) is that in theory the individual etc."
So here's a guy who "owns" 200+ aircraft. Well OK, they're really all someone elses, and he's only the straw man.
Pilot of airplane #34 gets drunk/stoned/goes nuts and crashes his airplane into a hospital/nunnery/school/shopping mall, does a bazillion dollars in damage, luckily no one is killed.
Lawyers immediately do an asset search and determine that #34 doesn't actually own the airplane, the straw man does. And this same guy owns TWO HUNDRED other airplanes, the SOB is RICH, lets sue his *** off!!!! Pilot #34 is broke, but straw man isn't, away we go with the doctrine of deep pockets!
Straw man loses the case for whatever reason, all his assets are seized to pay for damages, and his assets include 200 airplanes which he LEGALLY OWNS . . . including yours!
You might want to look at the documentation and have a US attorney look at it as well. Your airplane which is in his name may very well be at risk because of the actions of someone else whose airplane is also in his name.
The reason I know this is that I thought seriously about setting up the exact same deal (US ownership of overseas based aircraft) and no attorney I spoke with (including my wife) was able to say there would be no problems for the rest of the "fleet" in case of a problem with one airplane. It is simply too risky.
We also explored doing an LLC for each airplane, but discovered that any good attorney can pierce the corporate veil in a heartbeat.
If you can find a good, legal, and bulletproof way of doing this, I'd be very interested in it - I'd love to be in this business, "hosting" airplanes, providing parts as needed, etc.
Best Regards,
Echo Mike