WHEN a sucontractor becomes autonomous ?

[LVCDC2]

I'm working on chinese aviation and will have some delicate arbitration to do.

Chinese bought 13 Super Frelon from France. Later they built the Z-8, the same helicopter from reverse ingeneering (without license).
How to categorize them ?

More complex...
China bought Su-27 from Russia.
Then they built it under license.
Then they slighty upgraded it (J-11)
Then they upgraded heavily (new engines) into the J-15.

At some distance, it's hard to know which serie we see and I would like to know your opinion.
Do we put these Flanker and follower under a specific category ?
Do we use the Flanker (Sukhoi) page ?
Do we try to split between the two possibility when we are sure of the variant seen ?

The Mi 2 led to WS-2 with such progress and WS-2 has its own page but is easy to distinguish from the original Mi 2.
The MiG 15 / Lim 2 is more difficult to sort.

Hoping to read you... soon ?
Thanks !

[Bthebest]

The general rule I use is: (it might be stated somewhere or may need updating)

If it's built under license:
*Film page name should be the licensee's name - Top Gear
*Category should be the original manufacturer with a note on the category page Boeing AH-64 Apache

If it has been reverse engineered, it should be listed under the new manufacturer.

If it has had modifications, it up to the user (you) to determine whether it has its own category or not.

If you can't tell exactly what series it is, add it to the closest category that is appropriate.

Hope this helps!

[LVCDC2]

Yo !
It takes so long I came there...
I've forgotten that I post this question.

Thanks for the advice. It'll probably help a lot !