N-number lookup
Type any US tail number. Get the make, model, year, airframe, engine and airworthiness class — decoded, not as registry codes.
Try N172SP, N101WP or N1663S — the N is optional
Thirty seconds that has ended a lot of bad deals
Before you book a flight to go look at an airplane, look up its tail number. It takes half a minute and it catches a surprising number of problems while they are still free to walk away from.
The year in the registry should match the year in the advert. The model should match too — there is a meaningful difference between a 182P and a 182T, and between a standard-category aircraft and an experimental one, even when the photographs look identical. The serial number should match the one on the paperwork the seller sends you. And the registration should actually be valid, in the name of someone with an obvious relationship to the person you are talking to.
None of that proves an airplane is good. All of it can prove one is not worth the airfare.
What to check, in order
- 01Does the aircraft match the advert?Year, make, model, serial number. Any mismatch is a question for the seller before it is a reason to walk, but it is always a question.
- 02Is the registration valid, and to whom?Individual, LLC, corporation or co-owned. If it is co-owned and you are dealing with one owner, every other owner has to sign at closing.
- 03What airworthiness class is it in?Standard, experimental or light sport changes who may maintain it, what you may legally use it for, and what it costs to insure.
- 04How old is the airworthiness certificate?Its date is roughly when the airframe entered service. A date far from the manufacture year is worth asking about — rebuilds and imports both do that.
- 05How many exist?A type with thousands of active registrations has parts, mechanics and a type club. A type with forty has none of those, and that belongs in your operating budget.
Common questions
What is an N-number?
It is the registration number painted on every US civil aircraft, equivalent to a car’s licence plate. It starts with N — the international prefix assigned to the United States — followed by up to five characters. The letters I and O are never used, because at a distance on a tail they are indistinguishable from 1 and 0.
Does a valid registration mean the aircraft is airworthy?
No, and conflating the two costs buyers real money. Registration is a record of ownership, like a title. Airworthiness is a separate certificate, and it stays valid only while the aircraft is maintained per the regulations — the annual inspection, the applicable airworthiness directives, and any time-limited components. An aircraft can be perfectly registered and completely unairworthy.
Can I find out who owns an aircraft?
The FAA publishes owner names and mailing addresses, so that information is public. This site does not republish it. Whether an aircraft is registered to an individual, an LLC, a corporation or co-owners is genuinely useful to a buyer and is shown here; a searchable directory of where aircraft owners live is not, and owners never chose to be listed in one.
Why does the registry say the aircraft is an LLC?
Registering through a limited liability company is extremely common and is usually about liability and, in some states, sales tax — not secrecy. Roughly a quarter of the US fleet is held this way. It does mean that if you are buying, the seller on the paperwork is the company, and your title search needs to confirm who controls it.
The record is out of date. Why?
This is a snapshot of the FAA’s bulk registry file, refreshed periodically rather than live. Registration changes take weeks to appear in the FAA’s own data after a sale in any case. For anything that money depends on — a purchase, an escrow, a lien check — use the FAA’s live enquiry and a professional title search.
What does the airworthiness class mean?
Standard covers ordinary certificated aircraft, subdivided into normal, utility, acrobatic, transport and commuter categories. Experimental covers amateur-built and several other purposes, and carries operating limitations — for example, most cannot be flown for hire. Light sport is its own class with its own rules. If a listing says "experimental" and you were expecting a factory-built certificated aircraft, that difference changes what you can legally do with it, what it costs to insure, and who can work on it.