49 U.S.C. § 44101
Section 44101 · Operation of aircraft
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case 19 Cal. 4th 66 - Green v. Ralee Engineering Co. (1998)
Most recently applied in Taylor v. Huerta (May 2017)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Registration Requirement.—Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a person may operate an aircraft only when the aircraft is registered under section 44103 of this title.
(b) Exceptions.—A person may operate an aircraft in the United States that is not registered—
(1) when authorized under section 40103(d) or 41703 of this title;
(2) when it is an aircraft of the national defense forces of the United States and is identified in a way satisfactory to the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration; and
(3) for a reasonable period of time after a transfer of ownership, under regulations prescribed by the Administrator.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
In this section, the word “navigate” is omitted as being included in the definition of “operate aircraft” in section 40102(a) of the revised title.
In subsection (a), the words “Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section” are added for clarity. The words “a person may . . . an aircraft only when the aircraft is registered under section 44103 of this title” are substituted for “It shall be unlawful . . . any aircraft eligible for registration if such aircraft is not registered by its owner as provided in this section, or . . . any aircraft not eligible for registration” for clarity and to eliminate unnecessary words.
In subsection (b), before clause (1), the words “A person may operate an aircraft in the United States that is not registered” are substituted for “may be operated and navigated without being so registered” and “may . . . permit the operation and navigation of aircraft without registration” for clarity. In clause (2), the words “identified in a way” are substituted for “identified, by the agency having jurisdiction over them, in a manner” to eliminate unnecessary words.