And there’s a picture of a business jet with the N-number and pot leaf photoshopped on it.
How much would you pay for this unique marketing tool? The low, low price of only $100,000! (It appears he expects the buyer to also pay the $20 fee to the FAA.) That’s just for transferring the number to you. No airplane. Just a piece of paper from the FAA saying you can use that number on your aircraft.
Now, I think Nike paid a good sum for N1KE. But someone paying a hundred kilobucks for N420W? I’m not seeing it. What’s the ‘W’ supposed to stand for, anyway? The seller suggests maybe High Times could buy it. (Does Trans-High Corp even have a corporate jet?) Were I High Times and wanted to advertise my ‘Establishment cred’, I think I’d choose N420HT – which is available for a sawbuck from the FAA.
I think the seller might have been smoking something.
Aircraft registration in the U.S. must begin with N, and may have from one to five additional characters. The first character must be a numeral other than zero, and there are no numerals after an alpha character. The registration cannot end with more than two alpha characters, and alpha characters I and O are prohibited because they are easily confused with 1 and 0.
If an aircraft was registered before 31 December, 1948, it may have an additional alpha character after the N: C for commercial, private, or airline; G for glider; X for experimental; R for restricted; L for limited; or S for state. In actuality, the additional character is not part of the registration. NC12345 is the same as N12345. So it’s possible there might be NC1701 – but you’d have to apply it to a pre-1949 aircraft, and you’d have to purchase the N-number from the current registrant (who has it on a 1965 Cessna 172F in Minnesota).