In that case, would you buy a 20 year old 'private' aircraft with no airframe, engine or prop logbooks?
I realised just now while I was putting the spanners back in the workshop that I actually have an answer to that question.
I have purchased two vintage aeroplanes for restoration.
one has immaculate paperwork.
years of entries made by wally thompson during the period he was a LAME at kelleberrin is where wally's name first entered my noggin. wally is now a qualified aeronautical engineer.
the books are useless totally because the aircraft is undergoing a ground up strip to components restoration.
the second aeroplane has no log books at all. it has been in australia for 38 years with its nose pushed up against departmental bastardry.
the original owner in england died and the aircraft was purchased from the deceased estate. the papers were thought lost and it was only some time afterwards that it was discovered that the relatives clearing out the estate found the books, thought they were useless and burned them.
this aircraft will also undergo a ground up strip to components restoration.
now lost log books are not the end of the world.
as my old deceased LAME told me log books get lost all the time by relatives when owners die.
you merely start new books. if the life hours are known the book is started with a statement that the hours are believed to be xxxx and the book continues on.
if the hours are not known a log book statement is made to the effect and the book starts at zero. the proviso being that if the hours are ever known the log entries will be corrected.
I described ground up restorations for both the aircraft.
in reality there is no such thing. there is merely maintenance.
at the end of a ground up restoration there is merely the annual maintenance sign off.
the designs for both aircraft are no longer certified so they will return to the air as experimental aircraft. both aircraft have VH registrations assigned to them.
so yes, there are types of aircraft that I would and have bought without logbooks.