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Registered aircraft · FAA record as of October 26, 2026Beech D17S
N17985 is a Beech D17S, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with a piston engine, built in 1943. It has 5 seats. It is registered to Black Cat Aviation LLC, an LLC in Indianapolis, Indiana. The registration is valid: it was issued on November 28, 2016 and expires on November 30, 2029. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate, dated July 6, 1956.
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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- Beech
- Model
- D17S · all D17Ss and related versions
- Built of
- steel tube, wood and fabricA welded steel-tube fuselage and wooden wings, all covered in fabric: the construction of the 1930s and 1940s, which makes wood rot and fabric age the inspection items. The Staggerwing: a welded steel-tube fuselage and wooden wings, all under fabric. This is how the Beechcraft D17 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
- 4807
- Type
- Fixed-wing, single engineFAA type of aircraft code 4 (the FAA's broad category for the airframe). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Power
- Piston (reciprocating)FAA type of engine code 1 (what powers it, as the FAA classes engines). Every aircraft with this code · All codes, 1 motor · P&W R-985 SERIES · 450 hp
- Seats
- 5
- Year built
- 1943
- Cruising speed
- 158 mph
- Transponder code
- A13E2A (octal 50237052)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- November 28, 2016
- Expires
- November 30, 2029
- Last FAA action
- September 15, 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 · July 6, 1956
- FAA region
- Great LakesFAA region code C (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00114030
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Black Cat Aviation LLC
- Type
- LLCFAA type of owner code 7 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Address
- C/O Harry Todd
1 Indiana Sq Ste 2300
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2012
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 N17985 links to the rest of the register
- Beechcraft D17 127 registered
- Beech 17,447 aircraft on the register
- Built of steel tube, wood and fabric · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Pratt & Whitney R-985 series 1,593 aircraft with this engine series · 450 hp
- Black Cat Aviation LLC 6 aircraft in the fleet
- Indianapolis, IN 452 aircraft registered in this town
- Indianapolis International · IND
- Eagle Creek Airpark · EYE
- Hendricks County-Gordon Graham Field · 2R2
- Indianapolis Executive · TYQ
- 5 more landing places in town
- Indiana 5,697 aircraft registered
- FAA orders naming the Beechcraft D17 2 airworthiness directives
- Failure reports filed on the Beechcraft D17 4 reports since 1995
- Approved modifications for the Beechcraft D17 11 supplemental type certificates
- Failure reports on the Pratt & Whitney R-985 series 80 reports since 1995
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N17985.json.
Records check free · 3 to understand · 2 clear
The public federal record on N17985, 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 Black Cat Aviation LLC, an LLC, certificate issued November 28, 2016, expires November 30, 2029. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
The airworthiness certificate on file is dated July 6, 1956, 13 years after the 1943 manufacture year. A re-issued certificate commonly follows export and re-import, a rebuild, or a return to the register after cancellation. The cause is documented in the FAA aircraft records file, which the full report obtains. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 4807 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N17985 was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Beech F33A (serial CE717, cancelled November 22, 1989). 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]
1 NTSB record under N17985: Accident on October 11, 1987 at Concord, NH: fatal, destroyed (1 fatal). Details below. [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.
NTSB records 1
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Beech F-33A · operated under 091
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 26, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 26, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 26, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- NTSB aviation accident database (CAROL), records through September 30, 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, October 26, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data