Building aircraft under license

[Librarian]

Licence or license??? I had to grammar check and still I'm not sure .

Anyway, the question is when a country acquires a licence/se to build an aircraft from another does this include all the jigs etc for the manufacturing process. Are these locally built or sent over when the deal is done. My main interest is that if France bought the rights to build an aircraft already off the production lines in the country of origin would that country include the tools with the deal (if still available)?

Very interested in this right now for a build project....any help much appreciated

[Old Wombat]

Generally plans for the jigs are supplied & the receiving country make their own (one of the reasons Packard Merlins & RR Merlins didn't have completely interchangeable parts).

Also, the equipment the jigs fit into may not be a standard size or may be in Imperial instead of metric (or v-v), etc., &, similarly, the receiving company may change some items from Imperial to the nearest metric equivalent (again, or v-v), etc., to maintain internal standardisation.

[NARSES2]

I concur with Old Wombat. Normally blueprints are supplied.

The only times I know of when jigs and tools have been supplied (and this wasn't the aircraft industry) has been when the originating country is no longer building the car or such like and sells the whole production line but as a licence to produce and maintains the intellectual copywrite.

[Librarian]

Fantastic info, many thanks. Going to work this into my next project. Until I've conned the NHS out of some new glasses I'm going to work on some 1/48 kits I've still got, some unbuilt and some started. I enjoy the back story bit sometimes and want to put some more effort into it.

[Rheged]

The only times I know of when jigs and tools have been supplied (and this wasn't the aircraft industry) has been when the originating country is no longer building the car or such like and sells the whole production line but as a licence to produce and maintains the intellectual copywrite.

The Hindustan Ambassador (old Morris Oxford)  and Iranian Paykan (old Hillman Hunter) being, I believe, examples of this

[loupgarou]

The only times I know of when jigs and tools have been supplied (and this wasn't the aircraft industry) has been when the originating country is no longer building the car or such like and sells the whole production line but as a licence to produce and maintains the intellectual copywrite.

The Hindustan Ambassador (old Morris Oxford)  and Iranian Paykan (old Hillman Hunter) being, I believe, examples of this

Also the italian Lambretta scooter production line ended up in India.

[Captain Canada]

Licence.  I bet it would differ on whether there were jigs etc. available ?

[Weaver]

Another factor is that if the licencing country is building up it's aircraft manufacturing capability via the licence, the original manufacturer may do a staged transition:

Stage 1 : Fully built aircraft are supplied as patterns and learning aids and possibly to allow early training to begin.

Stage 2: The original manufacturer builds the whole aircraft then breaks it down again into Components Knocked Down (CKD) kits which the licencee puts back together.

Stage 3: Progressively less finished kits are provided, requiring more local work and an increasing number of locally produced parts and sub-assemblies.

Stage 4: Full local production is achieved, or at least the maximum degree that everybody involved aspires to. Components and sub-systems may still be bought in, but that goes for the original manufacturer anyway.

[zenrat]

The only times I know of when jigs and tools have been supplied (and this wasn't the aircraft industry) has been when the originating country is no longer building the car or such like and sells the whole production line but as a licence to produce and maintains the intellectual copywrite.

The Hindustan Ambassador (old Morris Oxford)  and Iranian Paykan (old Hillman Hunter) being, I believe, examples of this

Also the italian Lambretta scooter production line ended up in India.

India builds Vespas as well (Bajaj).

Paykan Ute.  Looks good as a lowrider.

[NARSES2]

The only times I know of when jigs and tools have been supplied (and this wasn't the aircraft industry) has been when the originating country is no longer building the car or such like and sells the whole production line but as a licence to produce and maintains the intellectual copywrite.

The Hindustan Ambassador (old Morris Oxford)  and Iranian Paykan (old Hillman Hunter) being, I believe, examples of this

They are indeed sir

[PR19_Kit]

The entire Renault 12 production line was sold to Rumania where it was built as the Dacia 1300, and they did the same with the Renault 20 as well, which became the Dacia 2000 but was only sold to the party elite.

That Paykan Ute looks really good, it's a pity that Rootes didn't do that to the Hunter in the UK. I bet it still looks like a Mk 2 Cortina under the bonnet though.