For buyers
A pre-buy costs real money. Find out what you're buying before you book one.
You have a tail number from the listing. That's enough to see what the airplane is, who has owned it, how it has actually been flown and whether anything is on record, before you spend a dollar on it.
Free, and you don't need an account.
What the free lookup gives you
What it actually is
Make, model, year, serial and engine straight from the FAA, so you can check the listing against the registry before you get attached to it.
How it has been flying
Detected flights and observed hours over the last twelve months, the airports it moves between, and the long quiet stretches a listing won't mention.
Who has owned it
Registration history tracked by serial number, so a tail number change doesn't quietly erase the airframe's earlier life.
Whether anything is on record
NTSB records searched against every registration the airframe has carried. No match found is stated as exactly that, never as a clean bill of health.
When you're serious about one airplane
Two reports, built from the record rather than the sales pitch
Aircraft Report · $9 · How has it been flying?
The last twelve months read for a buyer: where it's based and where it goes, how hard and how high it's flown, when it sat parked, and what to check because of it.
See a sample reportAircraft History Report · $29 · What's the story of this airframe?
Every registrant and tail number in the FAA's yearly files, where it has lived and what that wears, NTSB records under every name, and questions for the seller.
See a sample history reportComparing three airplanes before you commit to inspecting one is the normal case, and it's cheaper than being wrong about which one deserved the pre-buy.
Questions worth putting to the seller
The reports surface patterns and leave the conclusions to you and your mechanic. What tends to be worth asking about:
- A long gap with nothing detected. Was it down for maintenance, between owners, or something else?
- Activity that doubles or stops abruptly, which usually means the mission or the owner changed.
- A lot of short hops, which is a different kind of wear than the same hours flown cross-country.
- An operating area that moves, since where an airplane has lived shows up in what you find on it.
What this does not replace
This is research that makes a pre-buy sharper, not a substitute for one. It is not a logbook review, not a title or lien search, and not an airworthiness determination. Observed flight activity comes from third-party observations, is incomplete, and is not tach or Hobbs time. An absence of detected flights does not establish that an airplane didn't fly. Verify anything that would change your decision before you rely on it.
Look up the tail in the app
The same N-number lookup, on iPhone and Android. The map and a basic lookup are free.
