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Registered aircraft · FAA record as of November 6, 2026Balloon Works FIREFLY 7-15
N3178M is a Balloon Works FIREFLY 7-15, a balloon with no engine. It has 1 seat. It is registered to an individual in Old Town, Florida. The registration is valid: it was issued on March 7, 2018 and expires on March 31, 2028. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for balloon, dated June 21, 1996.
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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- Balloon Works
- Model
- FIREFLY 7-15 · all FIREFLY 7-15s 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 Balloon Works FIREFLY 7 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
- F7-894
- 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 · None NONE
- Seats
- 1
- Year built
- Not given
- Transponder code
- A3644E (octal 50662116)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- March 7, 2018
- Expires
- March 31, 2028
- Last FAA action
- April 28, 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 · June 21, 1996
- FAA region
- SouthernFAA region code 7 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00215791
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Bart Francis A
- 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
- PO Box 955
Old Town, FL 32680-0955
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 N3178M links to the rest of the register
- Balloon Works FIREFLY 7 345 registered
- Balloon Works 565 aircraft on the register
- Built of fabric and wicker · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Old Town, FL 11 aircraft registered in this town
- Florida 21,702 aircraft registered
- FAA orders naming the Balloon Works FIREFLY 7 1 airworthiness directives
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N3178M.json.
Records check free · 1 to understand · 3 clear
The public federal record on N3178M, 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 Bart Francis A, an individual, certificate issued March 7, 2018, expires March 31, 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 F7-894 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N3178M was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Piper PA-12 (serial 122020, cancelled August 19, 1992). 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 N3178M. 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