Aircraft are public, vessels are their own question

The FAA registry is public

On an owner's application, the FAA registers an eligible aircraft and issues that owner a certificate of registration. 49 U.S.C. 44103¹ requires both acts.

Legal names run the register. An aircraft may be registered only by and in the legal name of its owner, and a registered owner must tell the Registry in writing within 30 days of a change in mailing address. 14 C.F.R. Part 47² sets both. So the record is kept current by the owner, under a deadline, which is more than most registers can say.

Everything can be downloaded in one archive. The FAA's aircraft registration database download page says the entire database may be downloaded, that the archive contains the Aircraft Registration Master file and the Aircraft Document Index file among others, and that the data is refreshed daily at 11:30 pm central time. What the download does not announce is which fields carry the owner's name and address. That file documentation does not confirm it, so the honest move is to run the search and read the result rather than describe a file layout nobody has verified.

There is now a way to disappear from broad view. Under 49 U.S.C. 44114³, the Administrator shall establish a procedure by which, on request of a private aircraft owner or operator, that individual's personally identifiable information is withheld from broad dissemination or display by the FAA, including on a public FAA website. 49 U.S.C. 44114 defines that information to include an individual owner's name, mailing or registration address, and telephone number. The FAA states on its download page that it has set up that procedure. An aircraft held by a company is the clean case, because the withholding covers individuals.

Registration is not proof of who owns the plane. A certificate of registration is conclusive evidence of nationality for international purposes but is not evidence of ownership in a proceeding where ownership is or may be in issue. 49 U.S.C. 44103 says so. What the record tells you is who registered the aircraft, not who holds title when the question is fought.

Liens on aircraft

Separate from the registry itself, the FAA keeps a recording system for conveyances affecting an interest in a civil aircraft of the United States.

Breadth is the point of the word conveyance. Under 49 U.S.C. 44107⁴ the recording system covers conveyances that affect an interest in civil aircraft of the United States, and 49 U.S.C. 40102⁵ defines a conveyance as an instrument, including a conditional sales contract, affecting title to or an interest in property. What the FAA records it indexes by the names of the parties, which 49 U.S.C. 44107 lists as one of the two keys.

Recording is what makes a security instrument bite the world. Until a recordable conveyance, lease or security instrument is filed with the FAA, 49 U.S.C. 44108⁶ makes it valid only against a short list of persons. Once recorded, the same section makes it valid from the date of filing against all persons, subject to limited exceptions. For the searcher the point is simple: an unrecorded interest can be invisible and still good against the maker, and a recorded one is good against everybody from the day it went in.

Where the instrument is valid is a state-law question wearing a federal coat. Under 49 U.S.C. 44108 the validity of a recordable instrument is governed by the law of the place where it was delivered, regardless of where the aircraft sits. The register is national. The rule that decides whether the paper in it is worth anything is not.

Vessels: two registers

Depending on its size and whether it is documented, a boat lives in one of two systems, and the page tells you what each system provides rather than what any particular search returns.

Larger boats can be documented federally. Any vessel of at least 5 net tons wholly owned by United States citizens is eligible for documentation, recreational vessels included. 46 C.F.R. Part 67⁷ says so. For a documented vessel, a bill of sale, mortgage or related instrument must be filed with the Coast Guard to be valid against most persons, must identify the vessel and give each party's name and address, and is valid from the time it is filed if filed in substantial compliance. 46 U.S.C. 31321⁸ carries all of that. Complying instruments are recorded in the order filed, and the Coast Guard maintains indexes of them for use by the public, also under 46 U.S.C. 31321.

Any person may request the National Vessel Documentation Center to issue the record. 46 C.F.R. Part 67 lets any person ask the Center for a General Index or Abstract of Title, or a Certificate of Ownership, for a vessel, and the Center's own page says its eStorefront takes those requests online. The fee rule for a Certificate of Ownership speaks of additional vessels with the same ownership and encumbrance information, also under 46 C.F.R. Part 67. What those two records actually show on their face, and whether any owner name is held back, is not something the regulations here state. This page does not fill that in.

Like a mortgage on land, a documented vessel can carry a lien that travels with the hull. A preferred mortgage is a lien on the vessel for the outstanding mortgage debt, under 46 U.S.C. 31325⁹. That is the encumbrance a title search is looking for.

Smaller motorboats run through the states. An undocumented vessel with propulsion machinery must carry a number from the state where it is principally operated, under 46 U.S.C. 12301¹⁰. On a State's application the Secretary approves a numbering system consistent with the federal standard, and the Secretary is the issuing authority in a State that has no approved system. 46 U.S.C. 12302¹¹ sets both. On the application and certificate of number the owner's name and address appear, a state may condition numbering on proof of title, and the owner must give notice of a transfer within a reasonable time. 33 C.F.R. Part 174¹² and 46 U.S.C. 12304¹³ provide those. But the federal text does not open those records to anyone who asks. Release of a vessel's numbering and registration information comes only when the numbering authority is satisfied the request is reasonable and related to a boating safety purpose, under 46 U.S.C. 12308¹⁴. Do not assume the state system is a lookup.

Reaching either

Finding is not reaching. Both a plane and a boat are personal property, and a record that names the owner is the start of a separate problem.

Both are reachable in principle as personal property. In Florida, goods and chattels are subject to levy and sale under execution. Fla. Stat. 56.061¹⁵ says so. In New York a money judgment may be enforced against any transferable property that is not exempt. CPLR 5201¹⁶ says so, and when the thing is capable of delivery the sheriff levies by taking it into custody under CPLR 5232¹⁷. Something in a hangar and something on a trailer are both capable of delivery.

Whoever recorded got there first and travels with the hull. On default, the holder of a preferred mortgage may enforce it in a civil action in rem against the vessel, under 46 U.S.C. 31325. On an aircraft, a recorded conveyance, lease or security instrument is valid from the date of filing against all persons, subject to limited exceptions, under 49 U.S.C. 44108. Whatever record tells you who owns the asset usually also tells you who already has a claim on it, which is the part that decides whether a plane or a boat is worth chasing. Who stands behind a company on the registration line is a separate search, taken up in Entities and officers behind a name.