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Registered aircraft · FAA record as of October 30, 2026Piper L-21B
N3VU is a Piper L-21B, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with a piston engine, built in 1954. It has 2 seats. It is registered to Vincennes University, a government body in Indianapolis, Indiana. The registration is valid: it was issued on March 10, 1977 and expires on October 31, 2029. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for normal, dated September 29, 1977.
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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- Piper
- Model
- L-21B · all L-21Bs and related versions
- Built of
- steel tube and fabricThe 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. The Army Super Cub. This is how the Piper L-21 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
- 18-3987
- 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 · Lycoming 0-290 SERIES · 140 hp
- Seats
- 2
- Year built
- 1954
- Transponder code
- A31C8E (octal 50616216)
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 10, 1977
- Expires
- October 31, 2029
- Last FAA action
- September 9, 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 · NormalFAA certificate purpose code N (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). All codes · September 29, 1977
- FAA region
- Great LakesFAA region code C (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00760973
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Vincennes University (university or college with a flight programme: its whole fleet and safety record)
- Type
- GovernmentFAA type of owner code 5 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Address
- 2175 S Hoffman Rd
Indianapolis, IN 46241-3621 - Co-owners
- Aviation Maintenance Technology
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 N3VU links to the rest of the register
- Piper L-21 35 registered
- Piper 44,848 aircraft on the register
- Built of steel tube and fabric · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Lycoming O-290 series 2,126 aircraft with this engine series · 140 hp
- Vincennes University 19 aircraft in the fleet
- Indianapolis, IN 450 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 5,700 aircraft registered
- FAA orders naming the Lycoming O-290 series 7 airworthiness directives
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N3VU.json.
Records check free · 2 to understand · 3 clear
The public federal record on N3VU, 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 Vincennes University, a government body, certificate issued March 10, 1977, expires October 31, 2029. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
The airworthiness certificate on file is dated September 29, 1977, 23 years after the 1954 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 18-3987 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
No other airframe has carried N3VU according to the deregistered file. [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 N3VU: Accident on May 10, 1999 at Vincennes, IN: no 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: Piper PA-18-L21B · operated under 091
the pilot's failure to maintain directional control after landing. Factors which contributed to this accident were the pilot's long touchdown, the rough area on the runway, and the wheat field.
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 30, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 30, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 30, 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 30, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data