No free picture of N178BH 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.
Electric and sustainable aircraft · FAA record as of November 6, 2026M&D Flugzeugbau JS-MD 3 RES
N178BH is a M&D Flugzeugbau JS-MD 3 RES, a glider powered by electric motors, built in 2024. It has 1 seat. It is registered to an individual in S San Fran, California. The registration is valid: it was issued on May 1, 2024 and expires on May 31, 2031. It holds an experimental airworthiness certificate for racing; exhibition, dated May 15, 2024.
M&D Flugzeugbau: JS-MD 3 RES
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
- M&D Flugzeugbau (Germany)FAA spelling: M&D FLUGZEUGBAU GMBH
- Model
- JS-MD 3 RES · all JS-MD 3 RESs and related versions
- Built of
- compositeThe airframe is composite: carbon fibre or glass fibre set in resin, moulded in large pieces with few joints, which gives smooth shapes but needs different inspection and repair methods from metal. A carbon-fibre glider. This is how the M&D Flugzeugbau JS-MD 3 RES 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
- 3.MD209
- Type
- GliderFAA type of aircraft code 1 (the FAA's broad category for the airframe). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Power
- ElectricFAA type of engine code 10 (what powers it, as the FAA classes engines). Every aircraft with this code · All codes, 1 motor · None NONE
- Seats
- 1
- Year built
- 2024
- Transponder code
- A13706 (octal 50233406)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- May 1, 2024
- Expires
- May 31, 2031
- Last FAA action
- May 1, 2024
- Airworthiness
- ExperimentalFAA airworthiness class code 4 (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). Every aircraft with this code · All codes · Racing; ExhibitionFAA certificate purpose code 43 (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). All codes · May 15, 2024
- FAA region
- Western-PacificFAA region code 4 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 01442340
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Hirashima Benjamin J
- 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
- 232 Hazelwood Dr
S San Fran, CA 94080-5805
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 1
Connections how N178BH links to the rest of the register
- M&D Flugzeugbau JS-MD 3 RES 16 registered
- M&D Flugzeugbau 18 aircraft on the register
- Built of composite · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- S San Fran, CA 3,127 aircraft registered in this town
- California 27,897 aircraft registered
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N178BH.json.
Records check free · 1 to understand · 4 clear
The public federal record on N178BH, 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 Hirashima Benjamin J, an individual, certificate issued May 1, 2024, expires May 31, 2031. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
Experimental certificate for racing; exhibition, dated May 15, 2024, consistent with the 2024 manufacture year. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 3.MD209 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N178BH was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Raytheon Aircraft Company HAWKER 800XP (serial 258538, cancelled January 31, 2020). 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 N178BH. 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
