Airframe's Date of Manufacture
 

Ladies and gentlemen, looking for a definitive answer to the following query. It relates to Aircraft Manufacture Dates. On inspecting an aircraft's cn/msn plate, a "mfg date" is often quoted. Obviously it takes many weeks to build an aircraft, so what is considered when determining a particular airframe's date of manufacture? Secondly has the EC, perhaps through EASA, stipulated a common policy for determining this date in relation to airframes built within the EU? Many thanks in advance.

It was my understanding that this date is when the aircraft recieved its final certification, an FAA 8100-2 or EASA Form 52 for example.

I don’t believe a definitive answer exists for all circumstances. While I don’t know the EASA side of things, I have pursued this on the FAA/ICAO side which the info below may give you a path to follow on your side with the EASA.

In several ICAO documents this definition was used. Here’s one example (Part 1, Chapter 1):
Date of Manufacture: The date of issue of the document attesting that the individual aircraft or engine as appropriate conforms to the requirements of the type or the date of an analogous document.
https://law.resource.org/pub/us/cfr/...16.v2.2008.pdf

On the FAA FAR side there’s a definition in Part 21.183(f) and Part 34.1, both similar:
For the purposes of this paragraph, the date of manufacture of an airplane is the date the inspection acceptance records reflect that the airplane is complete and meets the FAA-approved type design data.
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-id...se14.1.21_1183

Date of manufacture of an engine is the date the inspection acceptance records reflect that the engine is complete and meets the FAA approved type design.
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-id...5#se14.1.34_11

Even the FAA legal department didn’t have a definitive answer. Here the date of the first flight and the issue date of the airworthiness certificate as the manufacture date enters the mix.
https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org...rpretation.pdf

Hope you have better luck with the EASA version.

Many thanks guys - much appreciated!