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Title 49 — Transportation

Part A · Chapter 441 — Registration and Recordation of Aircraft

§ 44102. Registration requirements

Statutory text

(a)

Eligibility.—

An aircraft may be registered under section 44103 of this title only when the aircraft is—

(1)

not registered under the laws of a foreign country and is owned by—

(A)

a citizen of the United States;

(B)

an individual citizen of a foreign country lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States; or

(C)

a corporation not a citizen of the United States when the corporation is organized and doing business under the laws of the United States or a State, and the aircraft is based and primarily used in the United States; or

(2)

an aircraft of—

(A)

the United States Government; or

(B)

a State, the District of Columbia, a territory or possession of the United States, or a political subdivision of a State, territory, or possession.

(b)

Duty To Define Certain Term.—

In carrying out subsection (a)(1)(C) of this section, the Secretary of Transportation shall define “based and primarily used in the United States”.

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

  1. Pub. L. 103–272 § 1(e) · 108 Stat. 745

    Enacted · 49 U.S.C. § 44102

    (Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 1161.)

    Source evidence

    Code source credit
    (Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 1161.)

    Enacted provision · exact public law section
    Section 1. subtitles ii, ii, and v-x of title 49, united states code (a) Certain general and permanent laws of the 49 USC prec. 101 note. United States, related to transportation, are revised, codified, and enacted by subsections (c)–(e) of this section without substantive change as subtitles II, III, and V–X of title 49, United States Code, “Transportation”. Those laws may be cited as “49 U.S.C. ________”. (b) Title 49, United States Code, is amended by striking the table of subtitles at the beginning of the title and substituting the following new table of subtitles: “Subtitle “I. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION “II. OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES “III. GENERAL AND INTERMODAL PROGRAMS “IV. INTERSTATE COMMERCE “V. RAIL PROGRAMS “VI. MOTOR VEHICLE AND DRIVER PROGRAMS “VII. AVIATION PROGRAMS “VIII. PIPELINES “IX. COMMERCIAL SPACE TRANSPORTATION “X. MISCELLANEOUS (c) Title 49, United States Code, is amended by striking subtitle II, except that chapter 31 (comprising sections 3101–3104) of subtitle II is redesignated and restated as chapter 315 (comprising sections 31501–31504) of subtitle VI of title 49, as enacted by subsection (e) of this section. (d) Title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding the following immediately after subtitle I:

1 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision

Notes

historicalAndRevision
Historical and Revision Notes
RevisedSectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large)
44102(a)(1)49 App.:1401(b) (1st sentence cl. (1)).Aug. 23, 1958, Pub. L. 85–726, § 501(b), 72 Stat. 772; restated Nov. 9, 1977, Pub. L. 95–163, § 14, 91 Stat. 1283; Mar. 8, 1978, Pub. L. 95–241, 92 Stat. 119.
44102(a)(2)49 App.:1401(b) (1st sentence cl. (2)).
44102(b)49 App.:1401(b) (last sentence).

In subsection (a), before clause (1), the words “may be registered” are substituted for “shall be eligible for registration”, and the words “under section 44103 of this title” are added, for clarity. The words “only when” are substituted for “if, but only if” for consistency. In subclause (C), the words “not a citizen of the United States” are substituted for “(other than a corporation which is a citizen of the United States)” to eliminate unnecessary words. The word “lawfully” is omitted as surplus.

In subsection (b), the words “In carrying out subsection (a)(1)(C) of this section” are added because of the restatement. The words “by regulation” are omitted as unnecessary because of 49:322(a).

Credits

(Pub. L. 103–272, § 1(e), , 108 Stat. 1161.)

Parsed from the official OLRC USLM XML in data/usc_all/usc49.xml · release point 119-108 · OLRC build 2026-05-04

USLM identifier /us/usc/t49/s44102