The U.S. aircraft register, updated daily
A Bellanca 7 Citabria, the same model family as N88172
A Bellanca 7 Citabria like this one, not N88172 itself. Photo: Armchair Aviator's, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Pictures of N88172 itself may be on Planespotters · JetPhotos · Airliners.net. Operator or owner? Send your own picture.
Registered aircraft · FAA record as of October 23, 2026
N88172

Bellanca 7KCAB

ValidFAA registration status code V: Valid registration. All codesNorth Carolina

N88172 is a Bellanca 7KCAB, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with a piston engine, built in 1974. It has 2 seats. It is registered to an individual in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. The registration is valid: it was issued on June 20, 2017 and expires on June 30, 2027. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for normal; acrobatic, dated July 26, 1974.

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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map

Aircraft

Maker
Bellanca
Model
7KCAB · all 7KCABs and related versions
Built of
steel tube and fabric
The 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. Wooden wing spars on most Bellanca-built Citabrias. This is how the Bellanca 7 Citabria 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
470-74
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 IO-320 SERIES · 150 hp
Seats
2
Year built
1974
Cruising speed
90 mph
Transponder code
AC24F4 (octal 53022364)

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 20, 2017
Expires
June 30, 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 · Normal; AcrobaticFAA certificate purpose code NA (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). All codes · July 26, 1974
FAA region
EasternFAA region code 1 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
FAA record id
00371981

Owner as the FAA publishes it

Name
Hughes Glenn D
Type
IndividualFAA type of owner code 1 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
Address
9 West Henderson St
Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480-1883

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

1947-11-13Piper J3C-65 · Valid registration

Connections how N88172 links to the rest of the register

Design
Engine
Place
  • Wrightsville Beach, NC 7 aircraft registered in this town
  • North Carolina 7,132 aircraft registered
Airworthiness

The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N88172.json.

Records check free · 1 to understand · 4 clear

The public federal record on N88172, 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 Hughes Glenn D, an individual, certificate issued June 20, 2017, expires June 30, 2027. No fractional interest recorded. [1]

CLEARAirworthiness certificate

Standard certificate for normal; acrobatic, dated July 26, 1974, consistent with the 1974 manufacture year. [1]

CLEARPrior registrations of this airframe

No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 470-74 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]

ATTENTIONTail number reuse

N88172 was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Piper J3C-65 (serial 15789, cancelled November 13, 1947). 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]

CLEARAccident and incident record

No NTSB investigation records located under N88172. CLEAR means the query ran and returned nothing, not that nothing ever happened. [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.

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 October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  2. FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  3. FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  4. 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 23, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data