FAA Aircraft Registry Scraper

Get the full FAA registry of US-registered civil aircraft with no API key and no login. Every active N-Number: about 290,000 aircraft with manufacturer, model, engine, owner name and address, registration status and expiration date. Filter into a list, or look up a specific aircraft by N-Number. Also covers 3 more FAA datasets no other Apify Actor exposes: dealer/manufacturer certificates, reserved N-Numbers, and recorded aircraft documents (liens, bills of sale). Built for aircraft ownership research, B2B lead generation, and fleet and title verification.

Here is one real row:

{
  "n_number": "N172SP",
  "serial_number": "17280001",
  "manufacturer": "CESSNA",
  "model": "172 SKYHAWK",
  "year_manufactured": 2015,
  "type_aircraft": "Fixed Wing Single Engine",
  "number_of_engines": 1,
  "number_of_seats": 4,
  "engine_manufacturer": "LYCOMING",
  "engine_model": "IO-360",
  "type_engine": "Reciprocating",
  "engine_horsepower": 180,
  "registrant_type": "Corporation",
  "owner_name": "ACME AVIATION LLC",
  "co_owners": [],
  "city": "AUSTIN",
  "state": "TX",
  "address": "123 MAIN ST, AUSTIN, TX, 78701",
  "status": "Valid Registration",
  "is_valid_registration": true,
  "airworthiness_class": "Standard",
  "expiration_date": "2027-06-30",
  "scraped_at": "2026-09-11T12:00:00.000Z"
}

What it does

Reads the FAA's own release of the aircraft registration database in one pass, joins each aircraft against the FAA's manufacturer and engine reference tables, and normalizes every entry into a flat row. Five modes:

• Search filters the active registry into a list: by N-Number, owner name, manufacturer, model, city, state, year range, aircraft type, or registrant type.
• Look up resolves exact N-Numbers, one row per identifier. An identifier not in the active registry comes back as an error row.
• Dealers lists FAA-certificated aircraft dealers and manufacturers, filterable by name, city, state, and whether the certificate is expired.
• Reserved lists N-Numbers reserved but not yet assigned to an aircraft, filterable by N-Number and registrant.
• Documents lists recorded liens, bills of sale, and other filed documents against aircraft, engines and propellers, filterable by N-Number and filed party.

Missing source values are returned as null, never invented.

Why this scraper

• Manufacturer and engine names, not raw codes. The FAA's own files store an aircraft's make/model and engine as opaque codes; this Actor joins them against the FAA's reference tables so manufacturer, model, engine_manufacturer and engine_model are real names.
• Registration status decoded. status, is_valid_registration and expiration_date in one place, for an ownership or compliance check.
• Registrant type filter. Corporation, LLC, individual, co-owned, government and non-citizen registrants are all distinguishable, useful for a targeted B2B lead list.
• Complete in one request. The whole active registry, about 290,000 aircraft, comes back in one keyless request.
• Dealers, reserved N-Numbers and recorded documents, not just the active registry. Three more FAA datasets in the same Actor, no separate tool needed.
• No API key, no login, no browser. Reads only what the FAA publishes.

Use cases

• Aircraft ownership research. Look up who owns a specific tail number, and their address.
• B2B lead generation. A filtered list of aircraft owners by state, aircraft type or registrant type (corporations and LLCs, for charter, maintenance or insurance outreach).
• Fleet tracking. Pull every aircraft registered to a company name across its N-Numbers.
• Title and registration verification. Confirm an aircraft's registration is valid before a purchase, and check its manufacturer, model and engine match what's represented.
• Market research. Track new-registration volume by manufacturer, model, state or year.
• CRM and data enrichment. Attach FAA registration status to aircraft or owner records.

Quickstart

Search: Cessna aircraft registered to a corporation or LLC in Texas.

{ "mode": "search", "manufacturer": "CESSNA", "state": ["TX"], "typeRegistrant": ["corporation", "llc"], "maxItems": 200 }

Every validly registered rotorcraft manufactured since 2015:

{ "mode": "search", "typeAircraft": ["rotorcraft"], "yearFrom": 2015, "statusValidOnly": true, "maxItems": 500 }

Look up a batch:

{ "mode": "lookup", "identifiers": ["N172SP", "N1", "N999ZZ"] }

Active dealers and manufacturers in California:

{ "mode": "dealers", "state": ["CA"], "dealerExpiredOnly": false }

Reserved N-Numbers matching a name:

{ "mode": "reserved", "ownerName": "ACME AVIATION" }

Recorded documents against a specific N-Number:

{ "mode": "documents", "documentNNumber": "N172SP" }

Input reference

Field	Applies to	Description
maxItems	all	Ceiling on rows written.
mode	all	search, lookup, dealers, reserved, or documents.
nNumber	search	N-Number contains this text, with or without the leading N.
ownerName	search, reserved	Registrant name contains this text.
manufacturer / model	search	Aircraft manufacturer/model name contains this text.
state	search, dealers	Two-letter US state code(s) for the registrant/dealer address.
city	search, dealers	Registrant/dealer city contains this text.
yearFrom / yearTo	search	Year manufactured range.
typeAircraft	search	fixed_wing_single, fixed_wing_multi, rotorcraft, glider, balloon, gyroplane, weight_shift_control, powered_parachute, blimp_dirigible, hybrid_lift, other.
typeRegistrant	search	individual, partnership, corporation, co_owned, government, llc, non_citizen_corporation, non_citizen_co_owned.
statusValidOnly	search	Only aircraft with a currently valid registration.
identifiers	lookup	N-Numbers, with or without the leading N.
dealerName	dealers	Dealer/manufacturer name contains this text.
dealerExpiredOnly	dealers	Only dealers whose certificate has expired.
reservedNNumber	reserved	Reserved N-Number contains this text, with or without the leading N.
documentNNumber	documents	Aircraft N-Number contains this text (documents filed against an aircraft, not an engine or propeller).
documentPartyName	documents	Filed party name contains this text. Note: the FAA's current file ships this column empty for every document; see FAQ.

Output reference (selected)

Field	Description
n_number / serial_number	Identity.
manufacturer / model / year_manufactured / type_aircraft	Airframe.
number_of_engines / number_of_seats	From the manufacturer reference table.
engine_manufacturer / engine_model / type_engine / engine_horsepower / engine_thrust_lbs	Engine.
registrant_type / owner_name / co_owners	Registrant.
street1 / street2 / city / state / zip / region / address	Location.
status_code / status / is_valid_registration / airworthiness_class	Registration status.
last_activity_date / cert_issue_date / airworthiness_date / expiration_date	Key dates.
mode_s_code / mode_s_code_hex	Transponder code, for ADS-B correlation.
fractional_ownership	Fractional-ownership program flag.
query / error	Set on an unresolved look-up row.
certificate_number / ownership_type / name	Dealer identity.
is_expired / cumulative_issue_count	Dealer certificate status.
registrant / reserve_date / reservation_type / expiration_notice_date / n_number_for_change / purge_date	Reserved N-Number.
collateral_type / collateral / party_name / document_id	Document identity.
receipt_date / correction_date / correction_type / serial_id / document_type	Document detail.
street1 / street2 / city / state / zip / address	Shared by dealers and reserved N-Numbers too.
scraped_at	ISO 8601 collection timestamp.

Run via API and CLI

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/USERNAME~faa-aircraft-registry-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode":"lookup","identifiers":["N172SP"]}'

$apify call USERNAME/faa-aircraft-registry-scraper --input '{"mode":"search","state":["CA"],"typeRegistrant":["llc"],"maxItems":1000}'

Fetch results

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&clean=true&format=json"
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&clean=true&format=csv"

Billing and limits

• Pay per result. Billed per aircraft row written.
• No charge on failure. A run that produces zero rows fails with a message and is not billed.
• An unresolved look-up identifier still writes one error: "not found" row and is billed as a base row.
• Free Apify plans run the built-in 10-row sample only.
• The whole registry comes back in a single keyless request, so a full run finishes quickly. There is no pagination.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Do I need an API key? No. The FAA aircraft registry is public, with no key and no login.

Why did my run return zero rows? No aircraft matched the filters. Loosen them. A zero-row run fails and is not billed.

Why is manufacturer or model null for some aircraft? A small share of aircraft carry a manufacturer/model code the FAA's own reference table does not define (amateur-built and kit aircraft especially). The Actor reports null rather than guessing; kit_manufacturer and kit_model cover most of the amateur-built gap.

Can I look up an aircraft that's been sold, scrapped or deregistered? Only if it is still on the active registry. A deregistered N-Number comes back as an error row; deregistered aircraft are not covered by this Actor.

Why is party_name empty on every documents row? Verified against the FAA's current file: it ships this column empty for all recorded documents, not a bug in this Actor. collateral (the N-Number, engine or propeller the document is filed against), document_id, receipt_date and document_type are all populated.

How current is the data? The FAA refreshes its release file daily. It is not real time.

Is this an official FAA tool? No. Independent, not affiliated with the Federal Aviation Administration. It reads only data the FAA publishes.

Local development

bun install
bun test                       # offline: parsing, normalisation, input logic
bun run src/main.ts            # reads storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json
bun scripts/verify-live.mjs    # hits registry.faa.gov directly, checks every mode (search/lookup/dealers/reserved/documents)