315,010 aircraft currently hold a valid FAA registration. The FAA Civil Aviation Registry is the single public record of every one of them, and the breakdown by category tells you more about US aviation than the total alone does.
Current US aircraft registry, by category
- 221,136 fixed-wing, single-engine — the large majority of the fleet.
- 49,357 fixed-wing, multi-engine.
- 27,879 rotorcraft (helicopters and other rotor aircraft).
- 5,256 balloons.
- 4,877 gliders / sailplanes.
- 1,910 powered parachutes.
- 1,058 weight-shift-control aircraft (trikes).
- 415 gyroplanes.
- 49 blimps / airships.
Separately, roughly 17,000 currently-registered aircraft carry a kit manufacturer on the FAA record — amateur-built aircraft cut across several of the categories above rather than forming their own.
Why the count moves every week
This isn't a static number. The FAA registers new aircraft, de-registers exported or retired ones, and processes ownership transfers continuously — see our guide on what de-registration actually means for why a tail number leaving the registry usually has nothing to do with the aircraft being destroyed.
Look up a specific aircraft
The totals above answer "how many" — if you're researching one specific aircraft, use our free tail-number lookup to check its individual registration status and accident history.