10,286 Beechcraft Bonanzas are currently on the FAA registry, spanning the original V-tail Model 35 (1947-1982), the straight-tail Model 33 Debonair, and the stretched Model 36 that remains in production today. All three share the same FAA type certificate (3A15) and nearly 80 years of production history -- the Bonanza is the longest continuously produced aircraft in the world, which also means an unusually long paper trail to check before buying one.
Why age and volume both matter here
With tens of thousands built across eight decades, many Bonanzas have passed through several owners, and some older V-tail airframes have had their N-number reassigned at least once. The FAA can reissue a cancelled N-number to a different airframe after five years (14 CFR 47.15/47.17), so checking only today's registration can miss an accident filed under a prior tail -- or wrongly attach a different aircraft's history to the one you're buying. The V-tail design also carries a well-documented structural history worth knowing before you fly one, which is exactly the kind of detail a real NTSB record search surfaces and a bare registry lookup does not.
What a $79 report adds
Current FAA registration status, prior registrants, recent FAA filings (bills of sale, security agreements/liens), full NTSB accident and incident history, and the serial-number cross-match that catches an accident hiding under a prior tail number.
Check a specific tail number
Use our free tail-number lookup to check registration status and a summary of what a full report would show, or see our used aircraft pre-purchase checklist for what to budget alongside a history check.