No free picture of N15163 or its model is known to the site yet; spotters' pictures may be on Planespotters · JetPhotos · Airliners.net. Operator or owner? Send your own picture.
Registered aircraft · FAA record as of November 6, 2026Firefly Balloons Inc FIREFLY 8B-15
N15163 is a Firefly Balloons Inc FIREFLY 8B-15, a balloon with no engine, built in 2001. It has 1 seat. It is registered to an individual in Omaha, Nebraska. The registration is valid: it was issued on June 1, 2023 and expires on June 30, 2030. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for balloon, dated September 6, 2001.
Where is it now checking the live feed…
Checking the volunteer receiver network for a recent position…
Aircraft broadcast their own position; volunteer receivers pool what they hear. Owners who have asked the FAA not to be displayed are not shown.
Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- Firefly Balloons Inc
- Model
- FIREFLY 8B-15 · all FIREFLY 8B-15s and related versions
- Built of
- fabric and wickerA hot-air balloon: a coated nylon envelope, stainless-steel cables, and a wicker or aluminium basket under a propane burner. This is how the Firefly Balloons Inc FIREFLY 8 family is built; the FAA does not record construction for each aircraft, and the type certificate data sheet is the authority for this one.
- Serial number
- F8B-2007
- Type
- BalloonFAA type of aircraft code 2 (the FAA's broad category for the airframe). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Power
- NoneFAA type of engine code 0 (what powers it, as the FAA classes engines). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Seats
- 1
- Year built
- 2001
- Transponder code
- A0D12C (octal 50150454)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- June 1, 2023
- Expires
- June 30, 2030
- Last FAA action
- June 1, 2023
- Airworthiness
- StandardFAA airworthiness class code 1 (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). Every aircraft with this code · All codes · BalloonFAA certificate purpose code B (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). All codes · September 6, 2001
- FAA region
- CentralFAA region code 3 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00894074
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Broadstone Ryan
- Type
- IndividualFAA type of owner code 1 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Address
- 14823 Monroe St
Omaha, NE 68137-3971
Owners can ask the FAA to withhold their name and address from public files. When they do, those fields are blank here as well. How that works.
Documents on file 0
No bills of sale, loans or other documents are indexed against this tail number.
Earlier use of this number 3
Connections how N15163 links to the rest of the register
- Firefly Balloons Inc FIREFLY 8 89 registered
- Firefly Balloons Inc 175 aircraft on the register
- Built of fabric and wicker · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Omaha, NE 331 aircraft registered in this town
- Eppley Airfield · OMA
- Millard Airport · MLE
- Nebraska 2,950 aircraft registered
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N15163.json.
Records check free · 1 to understand · 4 clear
The public federal record on N15163, read the way a buyer, lender or insurer reads it: FAA registration, prior tail numbers keyed on the serial number, reuse of the tail number, recent registry filings, and the NTSB accident record under this and every earlier registration.
Valid registration to Broadstone Ryan, an individual, certificate issued June 1, 2023, expires June 30, 2030. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
Standard certificate for balloon, dated September 6, 2001, consistent with the 2001 manufacture year. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial F8B-2007 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N15163 was previously assigned to 3 other aircraft: Air Tractor Inc AT-401 (serial 4010833, cancelled May 15, 1992); Piper PA-28-235 (serial 287310017, cancelled April 5, 1988); Stinson A (serial 9123, cancelled January 16, 1940). Histories keyed to the tail number alone can mix aircraft up; this check keys on the serial number. [2]
No bills of sale, loans or releases have reached the registry in recent weeks. The index covers only recent filings; older liens are in the records file. [3]
No NTSB investigation records located under N15163. CLEAR means the query ran and returned nothing, not that nothing ever happened. [4]
These live in the FAA aircraft records file (every document ever filed against the aircraft) and, for larger aircraft, the International Registry. Part of the full report.
AD compliance against the logbooks and flight-activity reconciliation are researched layers of the full report.
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of November 6, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of November 6, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of November 6, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- NTSB aviation accident database (CAROL), records through October 28, 2026. data.ntsb.gov/carol-main-public/basic-search
This automated check reads the public federal record. Nothing here is a legal opinion, an appraisal or a statement about the aircraft's condition; a CLEAR line is a statement about the searched record, not the aircraft.
Source: FAA Civil Aviation Registry, Releasable Aircraft Database, November 6, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data