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I am looking for a way to track prior ownership of a jet engine to confirm I am buying from the holder of record. Does such a database exist?

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    $\begingroup$ The original engine manufacturer may have some records. Whether or not they are willing to share them with you, I don't know. I am not aware of any public database. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel K
    Jul 12, 2021 at 13:37
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    $\begingroup$ Does such a database - i.e. a public database - exist for buying, say, a used car? As hard as it is to "prove a negative", it may be difficult to get a supported, definitive answer to this question, but I'd strongly suspect that the answer will end up being "no". A local FSDO might have the expertise to be definitive about this. $\endgroup$
    – Ralph J ♦
    Jul 12, 2021 at 13:45
  • $\begingroup$ @RalphJ in some countries, such things do exist for cars. They won't list who owned it, but will list things like accident history and clocked distance traveled so you can check if the paperwork is correct and the odometer hasn't been tampered with. $\endgroup$
    – jwenting
    Jul 13, 2021 at 6:58
  • $\begingroup$ I visited a salvage yard for engines near Harford CT years ago. They had a large number of J-47 ( ? ). Amoco used them for stationary power. There was little apparent record keeping. The deal was they "guaranteed" the engines , If you bought one and it failed , they exchanged it for another . $\endgroup$
    – blacksmith37
    Jul 22, 2021 at 17:06

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This information is not kept in a centralized public database. Manufacturers will also be unlikely to be able to answer such a query because they don't normally keep track of the transactions in which the ownership of the engine changes hands, except maybe indirectly if the engine has been under a continuous maintenance contract with them. I also doubt they would make this information publicly available even if they had it. This data is supposed to be kept for each engine in the engine log.

You may be able to indirectly determine that an engine has been with the aircraft for some time by requesting a CD from the FAA with the records of the aircraft in which it is installed, but that would also be a longshot.

If you are just buying an engine as a spare or a replacement, you should closely examine the engine log anyway. If chain of ownership is not clear from the log entries, or if there are unexplained gaps in the logs, then you can decide if you want to proceed with the transaction.

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