The U.S. aircraft register, updated daily
A Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser, the same model family as N257AW
A Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser like this one, not N257AW itself. Photo: Ahunt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Pictures of N257AW itself may be on Planespotters · JetPhotos · Airliners.net. Operator or owner? Send your own picture.
Registered aircraft · FAA record as of October 23, 2026
N257AW

Piper PA-12

ValidFAA registration status code V: Valid registration. All codesMaryland

N257AW is a Piper PA-12, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with a piston engine. It has 3 seats. It is registered to an individual in Hagerstown, Maryland. The registration is valid: it was issued on October 11, 2023 and expires on October 31, 2030. No airworthiness certificate is on file, which is normal for drones and for aircraft still being built or tested.

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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
Piper
Model
PA-12 · all PA-12s and related versions
Built of
steel tube and fabric
The fuselage is a welded steel-tube frame covered in fabric, with metal or wooden wing spars under fabric-covered wings; the fabric is replaced every few decades. This is how the Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser 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
12-3304
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
Seats
3
Year built
Not given
Cruising speed
82 mph
Transponder code
A27194 (octal 50470624)

Registration

Status
Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
Certificate issued
October 11, 2023
Expires
October 31, 2030
Last FAA action
October 11, 2023
Airworthiness
None on file
FAA region
EasternFAA region code 1 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
FAA record id
00098099

Owner as the FAA publishes it

Name
Wright Laura 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
9779 Beaver Creek Church Rd
Hagerstown, MD 21740-1521

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.

Connections how N257AW links to the rest of the register

Design
Place

The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N257AW.json.

Records check free · 1 to understand · 4 clear

The public federal record on N257AW, 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.

CLEARRegistration and identity

Valid registration to Wright Laura J, an individual, certificate issued October 11, 2023, expires October 31, 2030. No fractional interest recorded. [1]

ATTENTIONAirworthiness certificate

No airworthiness certificate is on file. Usual for a newly registered aircraft, a project, or an aircraft that has not flown since a change of registration; ask for the certificate. [1]

CLEARPrior registrations of this airframe

No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 12-3304 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]

CLEARTail number reuse

No other airframe has carried N257AW according to the deregistered file. [2]

NOTERecent registry documents

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]

CLEARAccident and incident record

No NTSB investigation records located under N257AW. CLEAR means the query ran and returned nothing, not that nothing ever happened. [4]

PENDINGTitle chain, liens and 337 forms

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.

PENDINGAirworthiness directives and utilization

AD compliance against the logbooks and flight-activity reconciliation are researched layers of the full report.

CLEAR the source was checked and shows no adverse findingATTENTION a fact a buyer or lender should understand, often routineNOTE context onlyPENDING covered by the full report
  1. FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  2. FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  3. FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  4. 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 23, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data