The Airtourer Co-operative owns the intellectual property associated with the Airtourer design. This includes the following:
- Type Certificates
- Drawings
- Jigs and Tooling
The most important of these are the Type Certificates (TC). While the TCs mean little to owners and pilots they are an essential requirement for the regulators such as CASA and the NZ CAA to allow the aircraft to continue flying. Ownership of the TCs carries important legal responsibilities with regard to continued airworthiness.The Co-operative discharges these responsibilities by including technical specialists on it's Board as well as working with Airtourer experienced Part 21 organisations and the regulators.
The Co-operative can assist LAMEs and owners in obtaining spares through it's own spares holding and various contractors.
The Airtourer Co-operative is a not for profit co-operative, registered in NSW, with membership by subscription. Under co-operatives law it can only deal with it's members. This ensures that ownership of the Airtourer design remains in hands of the aircraft owners rather than a commercial organisation more interested in profit rather than continued airworthiness.