No free picture of N72503 or its model is known to the site yet; spotters' pictures may be on Planespotters · JetPhotos · Airliners.net. Operator or owner? Send your own picture.
Registered aircraft · FAA record as of November 5, 2026Balloon Works FIREFLY 8B-15
N72503 is a Balloon Works FIREFLY 8B-15, a balloon with no engine. It has 1 seat. It is registered to Island Balloons INC, a corporation in Lanexa, Virginia. The registration is valid: it was issued on October 21, 2019 and expires on October 31, 2029. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for balloon, dated April 19, 2000.
Where is it now checking the live feed…
Checking the volunteer receiver network for a recent position…
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
- Balloon Works
- Model
- FIREFLY 8B-15 · all FIREFLY 8B-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 8 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
- F8B-591
- 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
- A9B893 (octal 52334223)
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 21, 2019
- 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 · BalloonFAA certificate purpose code B (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). All codes · April 19, 2000
- FAA region
- EasternFAA region code 1 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00315730
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Island Balloons 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
- 8530 Hicks Island Rd
Lanexa, VA 23089-9011
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 N72503 links to the rest of the register
- Balloon Works FIREFLY 8 183 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
- Island Balloons INC 6 aircraft in the fleet
- Lanexa, VA 12 aircraft registered in this town
- Virginia 5,972 aircraft registered
- FAA orders naming the Balloon Works FIREFLY 8 3 airworthiness directives
- Failure reports filed on the Balloon Works FIREFLY 8 1 reports since 1995
- Approved modifications for the Balloon Works FIREFLY 8 19 supplemental type certificates
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N72503.json.
Records check free · 1 to understand · 3 clear
The public federal record on N72503, 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 Island Balloons INC, a corporation, certificate issued October 21, 2019, expires October 31, 2029. 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-591 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N72503 was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Cessna 140 (serial 9673, cancelled May 22, 1965). 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 N72503. 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 5, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of November 5, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of November 5, 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 5, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data