FAA Registry Update
July 10, 2026 to August 7, 2026
Covering 4 weeks of registry activity · light aircraft under 12,500 lbs, drones excluded
Between July 10, 2026 and August 7, 2026, the FAA registry added 449 light aircraft and removed 247. The registered fleet grew by 202 to 268,583 aircraft. That works out to about 16 new registrations a day, with the fleet gaining about 7.2 aircraft daily.
More than one in 5 new registrations (20%) were amateur-built aircraft.
Bell saw more removals (5) than registrations (3), a net loss of 2.
Diamond Aircraft Ind Inc saw more removals (5) than registrations (3), a net loss of 2.
Fixed wing single engine aircraft account for 77% of all new registrations.
Anatomy of the additions
Factory-new is an estimate. The FAA records a new airframe without a year or an airworthiness date and fills them in later, so an undated addition counts as new when the FAA holds it under the manufacturer's dealer certificate, or its serial number is newer than any dated example of the model. Checked against additions the FAA later dated, the rule catches about 97% of new airframes and lets through none older than three years.
80 years old and back on the books.
Models not seen last month
Type-certificated models absent from the previous snapshot
What's being registered
When they were built
Manufacture decade of the 58 additions with a year on record. Most new aircraft arrive without one, so this chart leans toward returning airframes.
Who's registering
New registrations by manufacturer
- 1 Cessna 54
- 2 Piper 51
- 3 Cirrus Design Corp 46
- 4 Cessna (Textron) 35
- 5 Pilatus Aircraft Ltd 14
Most-registered models
- 1 Piper PA-28-181 26
- 2 Cirrus Design Corp SR22T 15
- 3 Cessna (Textron) 172S 14
- 4 Cirrus Design Corp SR20 12
- 5 Cirrus Design Corp SR22 10
Where they're landing
- 1. Florida 62
- 2. Minnesota 44
- 3. Texas 40
- 4. Kansas 39
- 5. California 20
Fleet churn
247 aircraft left the registry this period. Leaving is not the same as leaving the sky. Many return after paperwork catches up. The chart below shows registrations vs. removals for the most-active manufacturers.
Re-registrations inflate both sides
An ownership transfer or N-number change can appear as both a removal and an addition of the same airframe. These counts reflect registry activity, not aircraft entering or leaving service.
Methodology
Comparison of FAA Releasable Aircraft Database snapshots dated July 10, 2026 and August 7, 2026, filtered to Class 1 light aircraft (under 12,500 lbs, drones excluded). An added N-number is a new registration, not necessarily a new airframe. The FAA records changes with a paperwork lag. Manufacturer logos are trademarks of their respective owners, shown for identification; image sources and licenses are listed in the logo manifest.