[oflebbe]

I know about systems who had two types of serial numbers which ought to be the same, but weren‘t because they had been programmed at different eol stages, when daylight savings time kicked in. One of the system run in utc the other in local time. Date was part of the serial.

[sixdimensional]

Parallel production lines with overlapping sequences also cause this, especially in aerospace- it is widely known that Airbus does it, for example.

[specialist]

Very interesting thread.

Noob me would have guessed the "source of truth" would be whatever identifier(s) is recorded by the insurance company. Or maybe the service and maintenance agreements.

Failing that, I would have guessed some kind of (natural) compound key derived from the transfer(s) of ownership (Airplane Purchase Agreement? Bill of Sale?) noting the unique major components like airframe, interior, and engines? And maybe wings?

Sounds like a fun problem. Thanks for sharing.