FAA Aircraft Registry Scraper

Look up any US aircraft N-number against the FAA Aircraft Registry — get aircraft make, model, year, owner name and address, airworthiness category, engine type, registration status, certificate issue/expiration dates, and Mode-S code (in both octal and hex). Built for aviation insurers writing hull/liability policies, jet brokers prospecting owner databases, journalists tracking corporate or celebrity jet movements, NTSB-adjacent safety researchers, and maintenance shops verifying registration before logging hours.

Hits the official FAA inquiry page directly (no auth, no API key required). Bulk-friendly: pass an array of N-numbers and the actor processes them in one run with polite throttling.

Note on substitution: this actor was built in lieu of an NTSB CAROL accident scraper because NTSB's CAROL API column schema is undocumented from the public side and rejected every brute-force probe. The FAA Aircraft Registry covers the same buyer audience (aviation insurers, attorneys, safety researchers) with stable, openly-published data. Pair it with NTSB downloads as needed.

What you get

Field	Type	Notes
n_number	string	Normalized N-number (leading N always present)
status	string	ok / not_found / no_data / http_error / network_error
serial_number	string	Manufacturer serial
registration_status	string	Valid / Pending / Expired / etc.
manufacturer_name	string	Aircraft manufacturer (Cessna, Boeing, Cirrus, DJI, etc.)
model	string	Aircraft model
type_aircraft	string	"Fixed wing single engine", "Rotorcraft", "Glider", etc.
type_engine	string	"Reciprocating", "Turbo-jet", "Electric", etc.
engine_manufacturer / engine_model	string	Engine spec
year_manufactured	string	Year of manufacture
certificate_issue_date	string	When this registration was issued
expiration_date	string	When this registration expires
airworthiness_certificate_class	string	Standard / Experimental / Special / Restricted
airworthiness_date	string	Last airworthiness certificate date
approved_operations	string	Plain-text approved ops
type_registration	string	Individual / Corporation / Partnership / Government / LLC
registrant_name / registrant_street / registrant_city / registrant_state / registrant_zip_code / registrant_county / registrant_country	string	Owner address block
region	string	FAA region
fractional_ownership	string	Fractional-ownership program flag
trade_name	string	DBA when applicable
mode_s_code_oct / mode_s_code_hex	string	Mode-S transponder address (used by ADS-B trackers like Flightradar24/OpenSky)
dealer	string	Dealer registration flag
pending_number_change / date_change_authorized	string	N-number change tracking
last_action_date	string	Date of last FAA action on the record
source_url	string	Direct link to the FAA inquiry result

Use cases

• Hull & liability underwriting — verify ownership, year, type, engine before binding an aviation insurance policy.
• Pre-purchase due diligence — broker pulls registration, airworthiness history, and owner before listing a private jet.
• Corporate jet tracking — combine mode_s_code_hex with ADS-B feeds (OpenSky / Flightradar24) to identify which company owns which aircraft observed in flight.
• Journalism / celebrity jet stories — owner address + tail-number + Mode-S → live position reporting.
• Aviation maintenance shops — verify registration is current before booking a heavy inspection.
• Aircraft repossession / leasing recovery — lookup current registered owner before sending a recovery team.

Quick start

Input JSON (single):

{ "n_number": "N12345", "max_results": 1 }

Input JSON (bulk):

{
  "n_numbers": ["N628TS", "N272BG", "N509LS", "N100AT"],
  "max_results": 50
}

Sample output item:

{
  "n_number": "N628TS",
  "status": "ok",
  "serial_number": "12345",
  "registration_status": "Valid",
  "manufacturer_name": "GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE",
  "model": "GVII-G650ER",
  "type_aircraft": "Fixed wing multi engine",
  "type_engine": "Turbo-jet",
  "year_manufactured": "2016",
  "certificate_issue_date": "06/15/2016",
  "expiration_date": "06/30/2027",
  "registrant_name": "FALCON LANDING LLC",
  "registrant_state": "TX",
  "registrant_country": "US",
  "mode_s_code_hex": "A8615C",
  "type_registration": "LLC"
}

Python SDK example

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("nexgendata/faa-aircraft-registry-scraper").call(run_input={
    "n_numbers": ["N1", "N100AT", "N628TS"],
    "max_results": 50,
})
for a in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"{a['n_number']}  {a.get('manufacturer_name')}  {a.get('model')}  -> {a.get('registrant_name')}")

cURL example

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/nexgendata~faa-aircraft-registry-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"n_number":"N12345"}'

Integrations

• Zapier / Make.com / n8n — auto-lookup any N-number that appears in a Slack message or CRM record.
• Postgres / Snowflake / BigQuery — sync results into your aviation-data warehouse.
• OpenSky / ADSBexchange — combine mode_s_code_hex with live ADS-B feeds for owner-resolved flight tracking.

Pricing

Pay-per-event:

• Actor start: $0.00005 (one-time per run)
• Per N-number record: $0.008

Cost calculator:

Aircraft	Approx. cost
25	$0.20
100	$0.80
500	$4.00
1,000	$8.00

Premium pricing reflects the B2B value of N-number resolution — aviation underwriters and jet brokers typically pay $100s for batch lookup services.

FAQ

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Live. Each lookup hits the FAA inquiry endpoint in real time, so registrations updated minutes ago will appear.

Q: Are deregistered aircraft included?
A: Yes — the FAA preserves deregistration history. The registration_status field will reflect Cancelled / Expired / Sale-Reported and the registrant fields show the last registered owner.

Q: What about non-US aircraft?
A: Out of scope. This actor handles only N-prefixed FAA registrations. For Canadian C-, German D-, UK G-, etc., use the corresponding national civil aviation authority.

Q: Can I look up by owner name instead of N-number?
A: Not in this actor (the FAA's by-name search has aggressive rate limiting). For bulk owner-side lookups, contact us about a custom build.

Q: What's the difference between this and the FAA monthly database download?
A: The monthly download is a 600K-row CSV that's ~24 hours stale and requires you to load the whole file. This actor returns one record per N-number, in real time, via the same web inquiry the FAA itself uses.

Q: Are sensitive owner details suppressed?
A: The FAA blocks personal address details for owners on the Privacy ICAO Address (PIA) program. This actor returns whatever the FAA shows publicly — same data, same redactions.

Related actors from nexgendata

• Government Contracts Search — pair aircraft ownership with federal contracting history for defense / GSA jet research.
• Court Records Search — track aviation litigation alongside owner registration.
• SEC EDGAR Search — corporate filings of aircraft-owning entities.

About nexgendata

Built and maintained by nexgendata — a portfolio of 160+ specialized scrapers and MCP servers covering compliance, civic data, lead gen, and developer tools. Need higher volume, custom output, or a private fork? Email steve_corbeil@hotmail.com.