How to find out who owns a plane

Every civil aircraft registered in the United States carries an N-number on its fuselage or tail, and every N-number is in a public FAA registry. Here's how to go from the letters on a plane to the name behind it.

1. Read the tail number

U.S. registrations start with N, followed by one to five characters: up to five digits, or digits ending in one or two letters (N12345, N628TS, N1KE). The first character after the N is never zero, and the letters I and O aren't used, because they look like 1 and 0. Small planes show the number on the rear fuselage; airliners and jets often on the tail or engine nacelle too.

If the registration doesn't start with N, the aircraft is registered in another country: C- is Canada, XA- to XC- Mexico, G- the U.K., D- Germany. Those aren't in the FAA registry.

2. Look it up

Type the N-number in the search box. You'll see the owner the FAA has on record, the make, model and year, the serial number, engines and seats, whether the registration is valid and when it expires, and every earlier registration of that number. You can also search by a company's name, by make and model, by serial number, or by the six-character Mode S code that flight-tracking sites show.

3. Understand the owner

The registered owner is the person or organization holding legal title, which isn't always who flies it:

• Individuals and co-owners. Shown last name first, as the FAA lists them. We show their city and state, not their street address.
• LLCs and corporations. Many private planes are owned through a company formed just to hold the aircraft.
• Trustees. Banks and trust companies hold title "as trustee" for owners who don't qualify to register in the U.S. themselves or who prefer privacy. How owner trusts work.
• Lessors and fractional programs. Airliners are often owned by leasing companies; fractional jets by the program operator.

4. See where it's flying

The registry says nothing about where a plane is. Flight-tracking sites such as FlightAware and ADS-B Exchange follow aircraft by tail number or Mode S code. Owners can ask the FAA to limit public tracking through its LADD and privacy ICAO address programs, so some aircraft won't show up.

About the data

This site uses the FAA's releasable aircraft database, which the FAA publishes every night. Our copy is from Oct 30, 2026 and covers 316,685 registered aircraft. The official, authoritative record is the FAA Aircraft Inquiry. Nothing here is legal advice.