Read the public record.
Before you buy.
Instant reports on any U.S.-registered aircraft. We search the NTSB accident database (2008–present), FAA Service Difficulty Reports (1995–present), airworthiness directives and the FAA registry — matched to the airframe serial number, with the years searched stated on every finding.
Free instant preview — full report $99.
Fixed-wing & helicopters
Built on official U.S. government data
- FAA Aircraft Registry
- NTSB Accident Database
- FAA Service Difficulty Reports
- Federal Register (Airworthiness Directives)
How it works
From tail number to the public record in three steps.
Enter the N-number
Any U.S.-registered airplane or helicopter — 307,000+ aircraft covered.
Preview the record
Free instant preview: identity, record counts and data coverage, before you pay anything.
Get the report in 90 seconds
A PDF with the public record coverage, every record the datasets returned, a section naming what those datasets cannot show, red flags and sources — delivered on screen and by email.
What's inside the report
Every section is built from the official records of that specific airframe — nothing generic.
NTSB accident & incident history
Every NTSB case since 2008 with damage level, injuries, phase of flight and probable cause — verified against the airframe serial number, because U.S. registrations get reused.
Service Difficulty Reports
FAA maintenance difficulty reports since 1995, grouped by aircraft system and benchmarked against other aircraft of the same model. SDR filing is voluntary for most operators, so this dataset is a signal, not an inventory of the work done on the aircraft.
Open Airworthiness Directives
ADs matched to the make and model, with superseded directives and proposed rules filtered out, and compliance summaries to check against the logbooks.
Registration timeline & trust signals
Current registrant, registration timeline and recent-change signals, reconstructed by comparing monthly FAA registry snapshots since August 2023. This is not a title search: transfers before that window and the bill-of-sale chain live in the aircraft's individual FAA record.
Public record coverage
How many of the seven public sources returned anything on this airframe, source by source — and what you still have to order elsewhere. It measures the record available, never the aircraft.
Sources & methodology
Exact source URLs and extraction dates for every data set used, plus the full methodology — verify everything yourself.
What TailGuard cannot see
These are the limits of the public datasets, not of the effort. They matter most on exactly the questions a buyer asks first.
Damage and major repairs
Damage and major repairs are recorded on FAA Form 337 in the aircraft's individual FAA record, and in the airframe and engine logbooks. The FAA sells those records one aircraft at a time and publishes no bulk file — so no report built on public datasets, ours included, establishes a damage history.
Prop strikes and ground damage
49 CFR 830.2 excludes ground damage to propeller blades from "substantial damage", so a prop strike is not reportable to the NTSB at all. Its absence from an NTSB search is expected, and means nothing about the aircraft. The record of it is in the engine logbook and the teardown paperwork.
Airframe and engine times
Total time, time since overhaul and cycles are not published by the FAA in any dataset. They come from the logbooks and the seller.
Title, liens and the full ownership chain
We are not a title search. Our ownership reconstruction starts with our registry snapshots in August 2023; the bill-of-sale chain back to delivery, and any lien, is in the FAA record a title company pulls.
STC conversions and modifications
The FAA registry is often not updated after a conversion — a Piper JetProp still reads as a piston Lycoming in the registry years after its PT6 was installed. We report the registry as published and say so.
Maintenance quality
Corrosion, rigging, compression, how well a repair was done, how the aircraft was flown and stored. This is what the physical pre-buy inspection by your A&P/IA is for. Our report tells you where to aim it; it does not replace it.
Because of all this, an empty section in a TailGuard report is the result of a search, never a verification that nothing happened. Every finding states which dataset was searched and over which years.
See a real report first
Download a genuine TailGuard report generated from real records — registration anonymized to N123XX. What you see is what you get.
Pricing
One aircraft, one report, one price. No subscription required for the core product.
History Report
$99
one-time, per aircraft
- NTSB accident & incident records, 2008–present (serial-matched)
- FAA Service Difficulty Reports, 1995–present, by system
- Open Airworthiness Directives
- Registry timeline & trust signals (snapshots since Aug 2023)
- Public record coverage + red flags
- What these datasets cannot show, named
- Sources & methodology, PDF + email delivery
Not a damage history and not a title search: Form 337 repairs, logbooks and times are not published by the FAA in bulk.
Check an aircraftPremium Report
$149
one-time, per aircraft
- Everything in the History Report
- Flight activity analysis (last 30 days)
- Condition-adjusted value range
Deal Radar
$49
per month
- Automated alerts on underpriced aircraft matching your criteria
- Every alert includes the aircraft's public record
- Cancel anytime
Aircraft monitoring
Yearly alerts on your aircraft: new airworthiness directives, registry changes. Get notified when it launches.
Why we built this
TailGuard was founded by a certified aircraft mechanic who kept watching the same scene: buyers wiring six or seven figures for an aircraft with less independent history than a used €5,000 car comes with. The records exist — the FAA and NTSB publish them — but they are scattered across databases nobody reads, in formats nobody can use. We built the tool we wished every buyer had: one tail number in, those federal datasets searched and laid out — cross-checked against the airframe serial, scored, and explicit about where the datasets stop.
Frequently asked questions
Which aircraft are covered?
Every aircraft on the active U.S. FAA registry — over 307,000 airframes — including helicopters (Robinson, Bell, Airbus, MD and more). Non-U.S. registrations are not covered yet.
Are helicopters included?
Yes. Helicopters go through exactly the same pipeline: NTSB records, Service Difficulty Reports (including rotor-specific systems), airworthiness directives and the same public record coverage.
What is the report NOT?
It is not a damage history, not an airworthiness certification, not a title search, and not a substitute for a physical pre-purchase inspection by a qualified mechanic. Damage and major repairs live on FAA Form 337 and in the logbooks, which the FAA does not publish in bulk. It tells you what four federal datasets say about that airframe, over stated years — so you walk into the inspection and the negotiation knowing where to look.
Does it show damage history?
No — and no report built on public datasets does. Damage and major repairs are recorded on FAA Form 337 in the aircraft's individual FAA record and in the logbooks; the FAA sells those one aircraft at a time and publishes no bulk file. A prop strike is not even reportable to the NTSB — 49 CFR 830.2 excludes ground damage to propeller blades from "substantial damage". What we do show is the NTSB and SDR record matched to the airframe serial, over stated years, and we name what is missing rather than let an empty section read as a clean history.
How fast do I get the report?
The report is generated within about 90 seconds of payment. You get a download link on screen and a copy by email. The link stays valid for 30 days.
What is your refund policy?
If the report could not be generated or is materially wrong about the aircraft identity, contact us within 14 days and we refund the purchase. We cannot refund a report because its findings are unfavorable — that is the product working.
Where does the data come from?
Four official U.S. government sources: the FAA Aircraft Registry, the NTSB accident database (2008–present), FAA Service Difficulty Reports (1995–present) and Airworthiness Directives from the Federal Register. Every report lists exact source URLs and extraction dates.