The U.S. aircraft register, updated daily

No free picture of N7252V 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, 2026
N7252V

Balloon Works FIREFLY 8B-15

ValidFAA registration status code V: Valid registration. All codesNew Mexico

N7252V is a Balloon Works FIREFLY 8B-15, a balloon with no engine, built in 2001. It has 1 seat. It is registered to co-owned owners in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The registration is valid: it was issued on June 4, 2019 and expires on June 30, 2029. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for balloon, dated January 22, 2001.

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 wicker
A 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-618
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
2001
Transponder code
A9B8D1 (octal 52334321)

Registration

Status
Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
Certificate issued
June 4, 2019
Expires
June 30, 2029
Last FAA action
December 31, 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 · January 22, 2001
FAA region
SouthwesternFAA region code 2 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
FAA record id
00653634

Owner as the FAA publishes it

Name
Vanwye Kenneth Edward
Type
Co-ownedFAA type of owner code 4 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
Address
2722 El Tesoro Escondido NW
Albuquerque, NM 87120-1533
Co-owners
Vanwye Sandra Edith

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

1985-03-15Intermountain CALLAIR A-9B · Valid registration

Connections how N7252V links to the rest of the register

Design
Place

The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N7252V.json.

Records check free · 2 to understand · 3 clear

The public federal record on N7252V, 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 Vanwye Kenneth Edward, a co-owned, certificate issued June 4, 2019, expires June 30, 2029. No fractional interest recorded. [1]

CLEARAirworthiness certificate

Standard certificate for balloon, dated January 22, 2001, consistent with the 2001 manufacture year. [1]

CLEARPrior registrations of this airframe

No earlier tail number is recorded against serial F8B-618 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]

ATTENTIONTail number reuse

N7252V was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Intermountain CALLAIR A-9B (serial 1307, cancelled March 15, 1985). Histories keyed to the tail number alone can mix aircraft up; this check keys on the serial number. [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]

ATTENTIONAccident and incident record

1 NTSB record under N7252V: Accident on June 1, 1984 at Maringouin, LA: fatal, destroyed (1 fatal). Details below. [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.

NTSB records 1

FTW84LA263Accident on June 1, 1984 at Maringouin, LA: fatal, destroyed (1 fatal).serial on NTSB record: 1307

Aircraft on the NTSB record: Rockwell A-9B · operated under 137

Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB

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 November 5, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  2. FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of November 5, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  3. FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of November 5, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  4. 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