Aircraft registrations
The FAA aircraft registry in Python: registered aircraft by county, state and ZIP code, types, ages and models, and the status codes, octal transponder codes and registration addresses in the file.
The FAA publishes its whole aircraft registry every day: each of the 317,604 records in the 16 October 2026 file is an N-number with its make and model, year built, type of aircraft and engine, the kind of owner, the owner's mailing city, state, ZIP code and county, and its transponder address. It is the fullest public list of US civil aircraft, and it now includes thousands of registered spray and delivery drones.
The guides here read the file, map aircraft per resident by county and by type of aircraft by state, measure the fleet's age, find fly-in communities by ZIP code and join the make-and-model reference file. Four pages deal with what misleads: owners' addresses of convenience, status codes, transponder codes stored in octal and county codes that no longer exist.
🧭 Start with the concepts
The ideas the how-to guides below assume you already have.
⚙️ Then do the task
Step-by-step walkthroughs with code you can copy and adapt.
- How to Read the FAA Aircraft Registry in Python
- How to Map Registered Aircraft per Resident by County
- How to Map Helicopters, Gliders and Balloons by State From the FAA Registry
- How to Measure the Age of the US General Aviation Fleet
- How to Find Fly-In Communities From Aircraft Registrations by ZIP Code
- How to Join FAA Aircraft Records to Their Make and Model
🔧 When it breaks
The errors this topic produces, with the cause explained rather than just the command.
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