Balloon Works FIREFLY 7
N9044Q is a Balloon Works FIREFLY 7, a balloon with no engine. It has 1 seat. It is registered to an individual in Littleton, Massachusetts. The registration is valid: it was issued on August 23, 1989 and expires on February 29, 2028. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for balloon, dated May 19, 1989.
Aircraft
- Maker
- Balloon Works
- Model
- FIREFLY 7 · all FIREFLY 7s and related versions
- Serial number
- A78553S
- Type
- Balloon
- Power
- None · None NONE
- Seats
- 1
- Year built
- Not given
- Cruising speed
- 63 mph
- Transponder code
- AC80FB (octal 53100373)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registration
- Certificate issued
- August 23, 1989
- Expires
- February 29, 2028
- Last FAA action
- April 21, 2023
- Airworthiness
- Standard · Balloon · May 19, 1989
- FAA region
- New England
- FAA record id
- 00954561
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Thornton Ronald D
- Type
- Individual
- Address
- 10 Uplands Rd
Littleton, MA 01460-1117
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 2
Records check free · 2 to understand · 2 clear
The public federal record on N9044Q, 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 Thornton Ronald D, an individual, certificate issued August 23, 1989, expires February 29, 2028. 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 A78553S for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N9044Q was previously assigned to 2 other aircraft: Beech 58 (serial TH-83, cancelled September 1, 1970); Robinson Helicopter R22 (serial 0112, cancelled date not given). 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]
1 NTSB record under N9044Q: Accident on October 22, 1983 at Kailua-Kona, HI: 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 1
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Robinson R22 · operated under 091
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- 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 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 2, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data