The important question is do you have the paper Airworthiness Certificate and the Operating Limitations? Must folks are not aware that the paper Airworthiness Certificate essentially IS the airplane in the eyes of the FAA. If you have it in hand the airplane has been deregistered but is not in fact destroyed from an FAA paperwork point of view. Destroyed merely means that it no longer has a N-number. I can legally rebuild a certificated airplane around the data plate and the paperwork. The EAA Sport Aviation magazine and the Vintage magazine regularly have stories about airplanes that were restored by replacing all of the parts with new. But the very important detail is that the restorer had the data plate and the paperwork for the airplane.

So in the eyes of the FAA, if you have the paperwork and the data plate, then even if the aircraft was deregistered as "destroyed", you can "restore" it and re-register it. Done all of the time in the antique aircraft community.

Best of luck,

Wes
N78041