Balloon Works FIREFLY 8B-15
N2578V is a Balloon Works FIREFLY 8B-15, a balloon with no engine. It has 1 seat. It is registered to an individual in Front Royal, Virginia. The registration is valid: it was issued on September 2, 1999 and expires on April 30, 2028. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for balloon, dated March 16, 1995.
Aircraft
- Maker
- Balloon Works
- Model
- FIREFLY 8B-15 · all FIREFLY 8B-15s and related versions
- Serial number
- F8B-480
- Type
- Balloon
- Power
- None · None NONE
- Seats
- 1
- Year built
- Not given
- Transponder code
- A27503 (octal 50472403)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registration
- Certificate issued
- September 2, 1999
- Expires
- April 30, 2028
- Last FAA action
- May 5, 2023
- Airworthiness
- Standard · Balloon · March 16, 1995
- FAA region
- Eastern
- FAA record id
- 00925232
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Waddell Paul Patrick
- Type
- Individual
- Address
- 552 Milldale Hollow Rd
Front Royal, VA 22630-7309
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 2
Records check free · 2 to understand · 2 clear
The public federal record on N2578V, 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 Waddell Paul Patrick, an individual, certificate issued September 2, 1999, expires April 30, 2028. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
Standard certificate for balloon; the FAA file gives no certificate date and no manufacture year. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial F8B-480 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N2578V was previously assigned to 2 other aircraft: Cessna 170 (serial 18083, cancelled April 29, 1955); Cessna 177RG (serial 177RG0623, cancelled date not given). 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 N2578V: Accident on October 6, 1985 at Aspen, CO: serious injuries, substantial damage. 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: Cessna 177RG · operated under 091
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 2, 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 2, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data