A U.S. aircraft repairman is looking for ways to cut costs. He’s heard that the alternators used in piston-powered general aviation aircraft are identical to automotive ones, except for the data plate and price, with the aircraft ones costing about four times as much as the automotive.
The mechanic picks up a used automotive alternator cheap from a junkyard, cleans it up and paints it, fabricates and attaches a reasonable facsimile of an aircraft alternator data plate, and installs the alternator on a customer’s aircraft, charging the customer the price of a new aircraft alternator.
