Lockheed Martin F-16A
N861TA is a Lockheed Martin F-16A, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with turbofan engines, built in 1978. It has 1 seat. It is registered to Top Aces CORP, a non-citizen corporation in Mesa, Arizona. The registration is valid: it was issued on February 17, 2026 and expires on February 28, 2033. It holds an experimental airworthiness certificate for crew training, dated January 30, 2025.
Aircraft
- Maker
- Lockheed Martin
- Model
- F-16A · all F-16As and related versions
- Serial number
- 78-0326
- Type
- Fixed-wing, single engine
- Power
- Turbofan, 1 motor · P & W F100-PW200 · 23,770 lb thrust
- Seats
- 1
- Year built
- 1978
- Transponder code
- ABD438 (octal 52752070)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registration
- Certificate issued
- February 17, 2026
- Expires
- February 28, 2033
- Last FAA action
- February 17, 2026
- Airworthiness
- Experimental · Crew training · January 30, 2025
- FAA region
- Western-Pacific
- FAA record id
- 01349715
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Top Aces CORP
- Type
- Non-citizen corporation
- Address
- 7852 E Velocity Way
Mesa, AZ 85212-6637
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
Records check free · 3 to understand · 2 clear
The public federal record on N861TA, 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 Top Aces CORP, a non-citizen corporation, certificate issued February 17, 2026, expires February 28, 2033. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
The airworthiness certificate on file is dated January 30, 2025, 47 years after the 1978 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 78-0326 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N861TA was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Douglas DC-6B (serial 43522, cancelled April 20, 1998). 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]
2 NTSB records under N861TA: Accident on January 2, 1998 at Mcgrath, AK: no injuries, destroyed. Accident on April 1, 1996 at Beluga, AK: 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: Douglas DC-6B · operated under 125
The ingestion of snow into the windshield anti-ice system, and the resulting obscured windshield which made runway alignment not possible. Factors associated with this accident were the cold windshield, the reduced performance of the windshield anti-ice because of the short taxi by the crew, and the insufficient information on the system provided by the manufacturer.
Search the NTSB's CAROL system for ANC98LA014 for the docket and final report. Open CAROL
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Douglas DC-6-B · operated under 091
The Pilot-in-Command's selection of an unsuitable terrain area for taxi/parking and his misjudgment of the clearance required.
Search the NTSB's CAROL system for ANC96LA042 for the docket and final report. Open CAROL
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- NTSB aviation accident database (CAROL), records through August 27, 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 2, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data