Every helicopter that flies in the United States carries a tail number, the N-number the FAA assigns when it registers the aircraft, and the FAA publishes the whole register as a public file. That file was built for databases rather than people: every aeroplane, glider and balloon in the country, each type reduced to a code, and thousands of drones filed under the same code as a helicopter. This page is the helicopter part of it, sorted out and explained. Type a tail number to see what an aircraft is, who holds its registration, and whether it is cleared to fly passengers for hire, or browse the fleet by state, maker and model.
If you are weighing a charter, one figure matters more than the rest. Of the 14,973 helicopters registered today, 2,650 are listed on a Part 135 certificate, the FAA authority an operator needs before it can carry you for money. Everything else on the register is private, corporate, government or military-surplus flying. To check a particular company, search the Part 135 Operator Directory.
Look up a helicopter
The fleet in numbers
- 14,973
- Registered helicopters
- 2,650
- Cleared for charter (Part 135)
- 62%
- Turbine powered
- 13,338
- Drones the FAA files as rotorcraft
About 18 percent of the register is on a charter certificate, and most of that is flying patients and power-line crews rather than passengers. The turbine share tells you which end of the register the charter aircraft live in: a piston helicopter is a trainer or a private machine, and almost nothing that carries paying passengers has a piston engine.
Who builds them
Four names account for most of the register. Bell and Robinson between them built 50 percent of it; Airbus Helicopters, which absorbed Eurocopter and Aerospatiale before it, builds the light turbines that dominate tour and charter work; and the fourth, MD Helicopters, is the descendant of the Hughes 500 line. The FAA writes down the maker's name as it appeared on each application, so these totals fold a dozen spellings and three generations of company names into one row.
Each maker with a hundred or more registered helicopters has its own page, with every model family and where they are registered.
The models you will meet
A model family gathers the variants the FAA lists separately into the aircraft an operator would name on the phone: the R44 and R44 II are one family, so are the 206B and 206B-III, and the AS350 appears under four spellings plus its newer name, H125. Every family with 25 or more registered airframes has a page. The class column ties each one to the Helicopter Class Comparison, which is where the question of what fits your party and your bags gets answered.
| Family | Maker | Class | Registered | Part 135 | Median year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robinson R44 | Robinson | Piston single | 1,878 | 174 | 2008 |
| Bell 407 | Bell | Light single-engine turbine | 976 | 508 | 2009 |
| Airbus H125 / AS350 AStar | Airbus Helicopters | Light single-engine turbine | 957 | 360 | 2010 |
| Bell 206 JetRanger | Bell | Light single-engine turbine | 907 | 94 | 1980 |
| Robinson R22 | Robinson | Piston single | 798 | 4 | 1999 |
| Bell UH-1 Huey | Bell | Military surplus | 718 | 0 | 1965 |
| MD 500 series (Hughes 369) | MD Helicopters | Light single-engine turbine | 680 | 69 | 1982 |
| Bell 206L LongRanger | Bell | Light single-engine turbine | 538 | 230 | 1991 |
| Bell 47 | Bell | Piston single | 493 | 0 | 1964 |
| Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk / S-70 | Sikorsky | Military surplus | 463 | 0 | 1984 |
| Schweizer 300 / Hughes 269 | Schweizer | Piston single | 446 | 1 | 1990 |
| Robinson R66 | Robinson | Light single-engine turbine | 404 | 45 | 2016 |
| Airbus H135 / EC135 | Airbus Helicopters | Light twin-engine | 396 | 299 | 2008 |
| Bell OH-58 Kiowa | Bell | Military surplus | 360 | 0 | 1971 |
| Airbus H130 / EC130 | Airbus Helicopters | Light single-engine turbine | 310 | 220 | 2012 |
| Airbus H145 / EC145 / BK117 | Airbus Helicopters | Light twin-engine | 304 | 187 | 2015 |
| Enstrom F-28 and 280 | Enstrom | Piston single | 270 | 1 | 1981 |
| RotorWay Exec | RotorWay | Kit and homebuilt | 219 | 0 | 2004 |
| Leonardo AW119 Koala | Leonardo | Light single-engine turbine | 201 | 31 | 2023 |
| Bell 505 Jet Ranger X | Bell | Light single-engine turbine | 188 | 8 | 2021 |
| Sikorsky S-76 | Sikorsky | Medium twin | 171 | 55 | 2004 |
| Bell 429 | Bell | Light twin-engine | 169 | 43 | 2017 |
| Leonardo AW139 | Leonardo | Medium twin | 161 | 41 | 2014 |
| Leonardo A109 / AW109 | Leonardo | Light twin-engine | 156 | 39 | 2006 |
| Bell 412 | Bell | Medium twin | 84 | 12 | 2007 |
| Airbus H120 / EC120 Colibri | Airbus Helicopters | Light single-engine turbine | 71 | 1 | 2004 |
| Sikorsky S-61 | Sikorsky | Heavy | 71 | 14 | 1973 |
| Enstrom 480 | Enstrom | Light single-engine turbine | 71 | 0 | 2006 |
| Bell 204 and 205 | Bell | Medium twin | 67 | 37 | 1974 |
| Guimbal Cabri G2 | Guimbal | Piston single | 67 | 0 | 2019 |
| MBB BO 105 | Airbus Helicopters | Light twin-engine | 60 | 3 | 1982 |
| Bell 212 | Bell | Medium twin | 58 | 28 | 1979 |
| Boeing CH-47 Chinook / Model 234 | Boeing | Heavy | 58 | 5 | 1991 |
| Eagle R&D Helicycle | Revolution | Kit and homebuilt | 56 | 0 | 2010 |
| Safari / Baby Belle | Ch-7 Heli-Sport S R L | Kit and homebuilt | 53 | 0 | 2015 |
| Brantly B-2 | Brantly | Piston single | 52 | 0 | 1964 |
| Aerospatiale Alouette and Lama | Airbus Helicopters | Light single-engine turbine | 51 | 0 | 1970 |
| Sikorsky S-92 | Sikorsky | Heavy | 49 | 28 | 2013 |
| Airbus AS365 / EC155 Dauphin | Airbus Helicopters | Medium twin | 44 | 11 | 2000 |
| Bell 427 and 430 | Bell | Light twin-engine | 42 | 5 | 2001 |
| Airbus AS332 / H225 Super Puma | Airbus Helicopters | Heavy | 42 | 23 | 2009 |
| Aerospatiale SA341 / SA342 Gazelle | Airbus Helicopters | Light single-engine turbine | 39 | 0 | 1976 |
| Sikorsky S-64 / CH-54 Skycrane | Sikorsky | Heavy | 36 | 0 | 1968 |
| Bell 222 and 230 | Bell | Light twin-engine | 34 | 2 | 1993 |
| Airbus AS355 TwinStar | Airbus Helicopters | Light twin-engine | 32 | 9 | 1983 |
| Bell 214 | Bell | Medium twin | 31 | 1 | 1982 |
| Mosquito XE / XET | Mosquito | Kit and homebuilt | 31 | 0 | 2016 |
| Boeing Vertol 107 / CH-46 | Boeing | Heavy | 28 | 7 | 1965 |
| Sikorsky S-58 / H-34 | Sikorsky | Military surplus | 26 | 4 | 1958 |
| Bell OH-13 and H-13 Sioux | Texas Helicopter Corp | Military surplus | 25 | 0 | 1978 |
1,328 helicopters belong to no family yet: one-off types, imports and homebuilts filed under their builder's own name. They are counted in every total and listed on the maker and state pages.
Where they are registered
The state is the address on the registration, which is where the paperwork lives and not always where the helicopter does. Delaware and Utah sit far up the list because trusts and leasing companies register there. Each state page lists every helicopter registered in it, with the organisations that hold the most.
- Alabama 217
- Alaska 396
- Arizona 440
- Arkansas 96
- California 1,232
- Colorado 505
- Connecticut 90
- Delaware 812
- District of Columbia 133
- Florida 1,284
- Georgia 275
- Hawaii 127
- Idaho 194
- Illinois 234
- Indiana 158
- Iowa 106
- Kansas 194
- Kentucky 116
- Louisiana 507
- Maine 51
- Maryland 196
- Massachusetts 79
- Michigan 242
- Minnesota 225
- Mississippi 84
- Missouri 304
- Montana 411
- Nebraska 72
- Nevada 279
- New Hampshire 72
- New Jersey 130
- New Mexico 90
- New York 251
- North Carolina 249
- North Dakota 54
- Ohio 192
- Oklahoma 174
- Oregon 610
- Pennsylvania 347
- South Carolina 117
- South Dakota 57
- Tennessee 181
- Texas 1,578
- Utah 628
- Vermont 26
- Virginia 169
- Washington 460
- West Virginia 38
- Wisconsin 126
- Wyoming 182
Too few for a page of their own: Rhode Island (9). 89 more are registered to addresses outside the fifty states.
Who owns them
The FAA records what kind of entity holds each registration. Most helicopters belong to a company, and a good many to a bank or trust company acting as trustee: 774 in all. That is how a foreign owner, or a lender with a financed aircraft, holds a US registration, and it means the name on the paperwork is often not the name on the hangar door. Private individuals hold 2,695; they are counted here but never named.
Two pages go further. The largest registered fleets ranks the hundred organisations with the most helicopters, and the Part 135 Operator Directory searches every company holding a charter certificate, with the helicopters listed on it. It runs on a newer FAA list than this page, so it is the one to use when you are checking a company out.
How old the fleet is
The median helicopter on the register was built in 2005. The FAA records no year for 3,409 of them, mostly older and ex-military airframes, so the true middle sits a little earlier. Age reads differently on a helicopter than on a car: the components that wear are replaced on a fixed schedule of flying hours, so a well-kept airframe from the 1980s flies on parts newer than many of its pilots.
Turbine or piston
A helicopter has one of two kinds of engine. A piston engine is the same idea as the one in a car and powers the small two- and four-seaters that flight schools and private owners fly. A turbine, a small jet engine driving the rotor through a gearbox, powers nearly everything that carries passengers for hire, because it lifts more, runs on jet fuel and is far more reliable. The class comparison explains what that means for a charter.
- Turbine 9,324 62%
- Piston 5,649 38%
- Not recorded 0 0%
Why the FAA count is nearly double
The FAA sorts every aircraft by a type code, and code 6 means rotorcraft. When drones started registering, a delivery drone with eight rotors was a rotorcraft by that definition, so the file dated 14 September 2026 carries 28,592 rows under the code and 13,338 of them are unmanned, most of them agricultural spraying drones and delivery aircraft. This registry removes them with three tests: an electric motor, three or more rotors, or a maker that builds only unmanned aircraft. If you see a figure for US rotorcraft that is close to double the one on this page, that is the difference.
Download the registry
The whole thing is one file: us-helicopter-registry.csv or the same rows as a spreadsheet, us-helicopter-registry.xlsx. Each of the 14,973 rows carries make, model, family, year, type of registrant, city, state, engine, seats, airworthiness class and the Part 135 holder. Each state page offers its own smaller file. Private individuals are not named and no street address is included for anyone.
The facts are the FAA's and are public domain. The drone filter, the sorting into makers and families, and the Part 135 join are ours, and a link to this page is the credit we ask for.
American Helicopter Charters, The US Helicopter Registry, from the FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, file dated 14 September 2026. helicoptercharters.us/resources/helicopter-registry/
For software, the same records are served as JSON: /api/aircraft.php?mode=lookup&n=N407AB and /api/aircraft.php?mode=search&q=. Both allow cross-origin requests.
Common questions
How many helicopters are registered in the United States?
14,973 manned helicopters held a valid FAA registration on 14 September 2026. You will see a far bigger figure quoted, 28,592, because the FAA files drones under the same "rotorcraft" code as helicopters (13,338 of them) and keeps 281 records whose registration has lapsed, been sold or is still pending. Those are left out here, so this count is the one that means what you think it means.
What is an N-number?
The registration mark painted on the tail: the letter N, which is the United States' country prefix, followed by up to five digits and letters. It works like a licence plate. It belongs to the aircraft rather than the owner, it moves with the aircraft when it is sold, and it is the quickest way to find out what a helicopter is and who holds its papers. The search at the top of this page reads it with or without the N.
Does the FAA count drones as helicopters?
Yes, in the sense that matters here. The registry sorts aircraft by a type code, and code 6 means rotorcraft, which is any aircraft held up by rotating blades. A crop-spraying drone with eight rotors is a rotorcraft by that definition and files alongside a Bell 407. This registry removes them with three tests: an electric motor, three or more rotors, or a maker that only builds unmanned aircraft. 13,338 rows leave on those tests.
What is the most common helicopter in the United States?
The Robinson R44, with 1,878 registered. It is a four-seat piston helicopter, and most of them are in flight schools and private hands rather than charter fleets. Behind it come the Bell 407 (976) and the Airbus H125 / AS350 AStar (957), which are the two light turbine types you are most likely to be offered for a charter.
How many helicopters can legally fly charter?
2,650 of the 14,973 registered helicopters appear on a Part 135 certificate, held by 415 operators. Part 135 is the FAA rulebook for carrying passengers or cargo for hire in smaller aircraft, and an aircraft has to be listed on an operator's certificate before it can fly a paying customer. Most of those 2,650 are air ambulances and utility helicopters, so the number available for passenger charter is smaller again. These counts come from the FAA list dated 9 August 2026; the Part 135 Operator Directory carries a newer one, searchable by company.
Which state has the most helicopters?
Texas, with 1,578. Bear in mind that the state is the address on the registration paperwork, not where the aircraft lives. A leasing company or a trust registers a whole fleet at one office, which is why Delaware and Utah sit far higher on the list than the amount of flying done there would suggest.
How old is the US helicopter fleet?
The median helicopter on the register was built in 2005, going by the 11,564 records that carry a year. 3,409 carry none, and those lean toward older and ex-military airframes, so the real median is a little earlier. Age matters less than it does for a car: the parts that wear out on a helicopter are replaced on a fixed schedule of flying hours, so a well-kept forty-year-old airframe is flying on new components.
How current is this registry?
It is built from the FAA's Releasable Aircraft Database file dated 14 September 2026. The FAA updates that file continually and this registry is rebuilt from it every month, so a helicopter registered in the last few weeks may not show yet. The charter-certificate flag comes from the FAA's Part 135 operators-and-aircraft list dated 9 August 2026. The Part 135 Operator Directory is rebuilt separately from a newer copy of that list, so its counts will not match the ones here.
Source: FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, file dated 14 September 2026; Part 135 operators-and-aircraft list dated 9 August 2026. A registration is not a statement about an aircraft's condition, and a listing here recommends no operator.