N-number lookup

The N is the United States nationality mark assigned by ICAO. What follows is allocated by the FAA in one of three shapes:

The letters I and O never appear in the suffix because they are too easily confused with 1 and 0. If a mark you were given contains either, it is almost certainly a transcription error.

The authoritative record is the FAA Civil Aviation Registry. Search the mark on the N-Number Inquiry to see the registered owner, serial number, airworthiness class and the date the certificate was issued. The registry also offers a serial number inquiry when the mark has changed, and a make/model inquiry for fleet-level questions.

A register entry is a snapshot of the certificate as filed. It records the owner, not the aircraft's current location, and it lags sales by weeks. Treat a stale record as a lead.

Every N-number resolved through this page is banked permanently and re-checked against the public register once a week. Each one has its own record page.

How do I look up an aircraft by its N-number?

Enter the mark on this page — it resolves the aircraft type, manufacturer, registered owner and ICAO 24-bit hex address from public register data. For the certificate of record itself, search the same mark on the FAA N-Number Inquiry at registry.faa.gov, which returns the serial number, airworthiness class and certificate issue date.

Is FAA aircraft registration information public?

Yes. The FAA Civil Aviation Registry is a public record and is searchable free of charge by anyone, without an account. It names the registered owner as filed on the certificate.

What does the N in an N-number mean?

N is the nationality mark assigned to the United States by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Every civil aircraft on the US register carries it, followed by one to five characters allocated by the FAA.

Why does the FAA registry show a trust or LLC instead of a person?

Business aircraft are commonly registered to an owner trust, a holding company or a management operator. That is legal and routine. Connecting an airframe to an individual needs a second public source such as corporate filings, court documents or dated photography.

Can an N-number be changed?

Yes. Owners may apply to reserve and assign a different mark, and marks are reassigned after they are cancelled. The ICAO 24-bit hex address is tied to the airframe on the register, so it is usually the steadier identifier to search on.

For a mark that does not start with N, use the full tail number lookup, which covers G- (United Kingdom), C- (Canada), VT- (India), HZ- (Saudi Arabia), A6- (United Arab Emirates) and every other prefix, with links to each national register. If you want to see where business aircraft are actually flying, the private jet tracker follows tracked airframes on a live globe, and how to track a private jet explains the method step by step.