Howard Aircraft DGA-15P
N5553N is a Howard Aircraft DGA-15P, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with a piston engine. It has 5 seats. It is registered to Nighthawk Air Systems INC, a corporation in Marion, Texas. The FAA lists the registration as "first notice for registration renewal" (certificate issued February 24, 2020). It holds a standard airworthiness certificate, dated May 5, 1956.
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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- Howard Aircraft
- Model
- DGA-15P · all DGA-15Ps 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. A steel-tube fuselage and wooden wings under fabric. This is how the Howard Aircraft DGA-15 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
- 978
- 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
- Fuel
- 100LL avgas
- Seats
- 5
- Year built
- Not given
- Cruising speed
- 150 mph
- Transponder code
- A714CC (octal 51612314)
Registration
- Status
- First notice for registration renewalFAA registration status code 25 (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- February 24, 2020
- Expires
- February 28, 2027
- Last FAA action
- January 22, 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 · May 5, 1956
- FAA region
- SouthwesternFAA region code 2 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00553595
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Nighthawk Air Systems INC
- Type
- CorporationFAA type of owner code 3 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Address
- 102 Windsock Ln
Marion, TX 78124-6564
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 N5553N links to the rest of the register
- Howard Aircraft DGA-15 97 registered
- Howard Aircraft 109 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
- Nighthawk Air Systems INC 14 aircraft in the fleet
- Marion, TX 49 aircraft registered in this town
- Texas 29,976 aircraft registered
- Failure reports filed on the Howard Aircraft DGA-15 3 reports since 1995
- Approved modifications for the Howard Aircraft DGA-15 80 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/N5553N.json.
Records check free · 2 to understand · 2 clear
The public federal record on N5553N, 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.
Registration status is "First notice for registration renewal". An aircraft cannot be operated on an invalid or expired registration; resolve this with the FAA before any transaction. [1]
Standard certificate; the FAA file gives no certificate date and no manufacture year. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 978 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
No other airframe has carried N5553N 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]
2 NTSB records under N5553N: Accident on July 16, 1984 at Tracy, CA: no injuries, destroyed. Accident on March 22, 1982 at Livermore, CA: 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 2
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Howard Aircraft Corp. DGA-15P · operated under 091
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Howard Aircraft Corp. DGA-15P · operated under 091
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of November 9, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of November 9, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of November 9, 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 9, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data