Cessna 150 Cost

Nobody sells a new Cessna 150. The last model the FAA approved, the 150M, dates from 1974, and what is left is a used market. In our sample a 150 asks a median of $52,500, and the median airframe has flown 4,895 hours.

That price buys one of the most numerous trainers ever built. The FAA register still lists 8,241 aircraft in the 150 family, and 96.7% of those with a usable build year date from the 1960s or 1970s. A 150 is a two-seat airplane with a 100 hp engine, and what it costs to own is mostly a question of age and engine time.

What follows looks at the used market, the family tree, who owns the fleet, what the airplane costs to run and what the NTSB accident files record. Every figure comes from a named public source or a dated sample, and the sources are listed at the end.

Data used: FAA fleet through 2026-10-12; NTSB file through 2026-09-30; asking-price sample 2026-10-14.

No list price, only asking prices

Cessna stopped building the 150 long ago, so there is no manufacturer's list price to anchor on and we do not invent one. What exists is what sellers ask. We gathered 12 Cessna 150 listings from one marketplace on 14 October 2026, and 10 of them carried a usable asking price.

The median ask is $52,500, with prices running from $36,000 to $136,000. The airplanes behind those prices were built between 1964 and 1976. The median airframe has flown 4,895 hours, a lot of flying for a light two-seater, and the listings do not say how the engine has fared.

A median $52,500 buys an airplane with 4,895 airframe hours.

That is a small sample. 10 priced listings is enough for a median and not enough for a verdict, and one unusually well-restored or well-equipped airplane can move it. Read the figures as a snapshot, not a price guide. 1 listing carried no price and 1 showed a placeholder price. These are asking prices, not sales, and no individual listing is published. Prices were recorded to the nearest 1,000 dollars.

For the wider market, our guide to what a small plane costs puts the 150 in context. The trainer that followed it is covered in what a Cessna 152 costs, and the four-seat step up in what a Cessna 172 Skyhawk costs. A rival two-seater from Piper is covered in what a Piper PA-38 Tomahawk costs.

Show the asking-price table

Used asking prices by model

Model or band	Listings	Asking median (USD)	Asking range (USD)	Median total time (hours)	Sample years
150	10	$52,500	$36,000 to $136,000	4,895	1964 to 1976

A trainer that barely changed for sixteen years

The FAA's type certificate data sheet runs from the original 150, approved in 1958, to the 150M, approved in 1974. Through all of it the engine stayed a 100 hp Continental O-200-A. What changed was the weight: maximum takeoff weight rose by 100 lb, from 1,500 lb to 1,600 lb. For where the 150 sits among the rest, the guide to the main types of planes helps, and how fast the different Cessna models fly covers the performance side.

The Aerobat, the models with an A in front of the number, is the aerobatic version of the 150. It is a small part of the register: the family's Aerobat group has 232 aircraft (2.8%) against 7,995 in the standard trainer group.

Show the full model comparison table

Certified base models, FAA fleet and asking-price context

Model and approval year	Certified specification	Ownership context
150Approved: 1958 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,500 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 387 all registrations; 374 valid (status V)Asking median: $52,500Primary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150AApproved: 1960 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,500 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 122 all registrations; 121 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150BApproved: 1961 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,500 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 111 all registrations; 110 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150CApproved: 1962 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,500 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 166 all registrations; 163 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150DApproved: 1963 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 260 all registrations; 257 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150EApproved: 1964 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 303 all registrations; 293 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150FApproved: 1965 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 1,063 all registrations; 1,034 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150GApproved: 1966 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 977 all registrations; 953 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150HApproved: 1967 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 756 all registrations; 736 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150JApproved: 1968 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 659 all registrations; 642 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150KApproved: 1969 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 304 all registrations; 301 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
A150KApproved: 1969 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 72 all registrations; 72 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150LApproved: 1970 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 1,448 all registrations; 1,421 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
A150LApproved: 1970 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 80 all registrations; 78 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
150MApproved: 1974 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 1,439 all registrations; 1,409 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved
A150MApproved: 1974 FAA sheet	Continental O-200-A 100 hpMaximum takeoff weight: 1,600 lbFuel, total / usable: 26.0 US gal / 22.5 US galSeating: 2 seats	Registered: 80 all registrations; 80 valid (status V)Asking median: Not shown for this designationPrimary engine TBO: No applicable primary schedule retrieved

Most Cessna 150 aircraft were built in the sixties

The FAA register lists 8,241 aircraft in the 150 family, and 8,058 of them (97.8%) hold a valid registration, while 183 carry another status. Of the whole family, 6,576 records have a usable build year, and 6,430 of those are valid. That counts paperwork, not airplanes in the air: a valid registration says nothing about whether the aircraft is airworthy or flying.

The most common labels are the 150L with 1,448 records and the 150M with 1,439, only 9 apart. The 150F follows with 1,063, then the 150G with 977.

1. 2181950s
2. 3,8051960s
3. 2,5511970s

1,665 records have a blank or invalid build year and are left out of the chart.

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry</> Embed this chart

57.9% of the registered 150 aircraft with a usable build year were built in the 1960s.

The 1960s account for 3,805 aircraft and the 1970s for 2,551. The 1950s add 218. Almost nothing on the register is newer: 1 aircraft from the 1980s and 1 from the 2000s.

Individuals hold the most registrations, and by a long way: 63.8%. LLCs follow at 14.8%, then co-owned aircraft at 10.8% and corporations at 7.9%. The registry records the owner category, not how the airplane is used, so a flying club can sit in any of those columns.

Texas (9.1%), California (8.4%) and Florida (6.6%) lead the state table. Alaska makes the top ten with 221 registrations (2.7%), alongside Michigan and Minnesota. The state field is the registrant's address, not where the aircraft flies.

Download the fleet CSV by model and build year. Free to use, please link back. It counts all registrations and valid ones (status V) by model label and build year, including blank years, and contains no personal records.

Show the fleet tables

Registered model groups

Group	All registrations	Valid (status V)	Share of all registrations
150 registry designations	7,995	7,814	97.0%
A150 registry designations	232	230	2.8%
Reims-built registry designations	14	14	0.2%

Largest FAA model labels

Model label	All registrations	Valid (status V)
150L	1,448	1,421
150M	1,439	1,409
150F	1,063	1,034
150G	977	953
150H	756	736
150J	659	642
150	387	374
150K	304	301
150E	303	293
150D	260	257
150C	166	163
150A	122	121
150B	111	110
A150L	80	78
A150M	80	80
A150K	72	72
CESSNA F150L	3	3
CESSNA 150K	2	2
CESSNA F150M	2	2
F150M	2	2

Decade shares among records with usable build years

Build decade	All registrations	Share of known years	Valid (status V)	Valid share of known years
1950s	218	3.3%	210	3.3%
1960s	3,805	57.9%	3,715	57.8%
1970s	2,551	38.8%	2,503	38.9%
1980s	1	0.0%	1	0.0%
2000s	1	0.0%	1	0.0%

Registrant types with the FAA legend

FAA code	Registrant type	All registrations	Valid (status V)	Share of all registrations
1	Individual	5,258	5,092	63.8%
2	Partnership	137	137	1.7%
3	Corporation	655	654	7.9%
4	Co-Owned	893	892	10.8%
5	Government	54	54	0.7%
7	LLC	1,221	1,220	14.8%
8	Non Citizen Corporation	16	9	0.2%
unknown	Missing or unlisted registrant type	7	0	0.1%
9	Non Citizen Co-Owned	0	0	No records

Largest registrant-state totals

State	All registrations	Valid (status V)	Share of all registrations
TX	747	734	9.1%
CA	690	679	8.4%
FL	544	533	6.6%
WA	348	340	4.2%
MI	274	269	3.3%
OH	263	260	3.2%
GA	259	256	3.1%
AZ	241	230	2.9%
MN	234	229	2.8%
AK	221	213	2.7%

Show every exact FAA model label

All exact FAA model labels

Model label	All registrations	Valid (status V)
150L	1,448	1,421
150M	1,439	1,409
150F	1,063	1,034
150G	977	953
150H	756	736
150J	659	642
150	387	374
150K	304	301
150E	303	293
150D	260	257
150C	166	163
150A	122	121
150B	111	110
A150L	80	78
A150M	80	80
A150K	72	72
CESSNA F150L	3	3
CESSNA 150K	2	2
CESSNA F150M	2	2
F150M	2	2
CESSNA F150G	1	1
CESSNA F150H	1	1
CESSNA FA150L	1	1
F150H	1	1
FRA 150M	1	1
Total	8,241	8,058

The cheap airplane still wants a budget

After the purchase the airplane wants fuel, an engine fund, an annual inspection, insurance and somewhere to sleep. Only some of those have a published number worth printing, and for the 150 almost none do.

Fuel and the engine

We have no published fuel burn for the 150 that we could verify against a maker or a dated specification table, so the calculator leaves fuel burn for you to fill in. The same goes for the engine. The O-200-A is a Continental, and Continental's current overhaul schedule sits behind an account login we could not use, so we publish no overhaul interval. Ask the shop that would do the work. The engine is the line item that arrives all at once.

The rest

The FAA describes an annual inspection interval of 12 calendar months for ordinary US personal aircraft ownership. Insurance, hangar or tie-down fees, labour rates and loan terms depend too much on the owner, the airfield and the airplane for one published number to mean anything, so this page prints none. Add your own quotes and you have a budget that belongs to you. More on the wider costs of owning an aircraft sits in our ownership section.

Renting is the benchmark your own figure has to justify. Our guide to how much it costs to rent a Cessna 172 shows the other side of the ledger for a bigger airplane.

What the accident files record

Every entry in the NTSB files is a real event, and the counts are all this page claims to know about them. The NTSB lists 975 accidents involving 150-family aircraft from 2000 through 2025. Of those, 178, or 18.3%, were fatal, and 260 people died in them.

1. 762000
6. 2005
11. 2010
16. 2015
21. 2020
26. 352025

Counts only. The NTSB does not record how many hours the family flew, so these bars are not rates.

Source: NTSB aviation accident database</> Embed this chart

The count was highest in 2000, at 76, and stood at 35 in 2025. That is a drop in the number of accidents. It should not be read as a change in risk, because the data holds no flying hours to divide by, and the fleet itself has aged and shrunk.

1. Landing191
2. Takeoff145
3. Approach108
4. Enroute131
5. Maneuvering95
6. Taxi18
7. Cruise86

The first coded phase is the one attached to the first event in the NTSB's sequence for each accident. Accidents without a coded sequence, or with unmapped codes, sit in separate rows of the full table.

Source: NTSB aviation accident database</> Embed this chart

Landing leads by a distance. 19.6% of accidents begin there, and takeoff adds 14.9%. Together that is 34.5% of the record, all of it at the two ends of a flight.

The NTSB's own findings point at people and machines together. Of the 461 accidents with causal findings in its current coding, 78.3% involve personnel issues and 75.3% involve aircraft issues. An accident can carry several findings, so the shares overlap and do not add up to the whole.

Show the NTSB tables

NTSB accident counts by event year

Year	Accidents	Fatal accidents
2000	76	12
2001	61	10
2002	48	6
2003	55	5
2004	47	7
2005	44	12
2006	44	7
2007	51	7
2008	35	4
2009	30	4
2010	34	7
2011	37	8
2012	39	9
2013	18	2
2014	19	7
2015	36	7
2016	32	7
2017	20	6
2018	27	11
2019	29	9
2020	24	6
2021	39	5
2022	26	3
2023	36	7
2024	33	5
2025	35	5

First coded phase of flight

Phase of flight	Accidents	Share of all accidents
Landing	191	19.6%
Takeoff	145	14.9%
Enroute	131	13.4%
Approach	108	11.1%
Maneuvering	95	9.7%
Cruise	86	8.8%
Initial Climb	68	7.0%
Prior to Flight	26	2.7%
Go-around (VFR)	19	1.9%
Taxi	18	1.8%
Descent	14	1.4%
Standing	13	1.3%
Climb	12	1.2%
Emergency or uncontrolled descent	11	1.1%
Other, unknown or not coded	38	3.9%
Total	975	100.0%

Modern findings: overlapping cause or contributing-factor groups

Group	Accidents	Share of all	Share of coded subset
Aircraft	347	35.6%	75.3%
Personnel issues	361	37.0%	78.3%
Environmental issues	127	13.0%	27.5%
Not determined	35	3.6%	7.6%

Legacy findings: overlapping cause or contributing-factor groups

Group	Accidents	Share of all	Share of coded subset
Aircraft/Environment	253	25.9%	62.2%
Human Performance	378	38.8%	92.9%
Direct Underlying Factors	36	3.7%	8.8%
Indirect Underlying Factors	1	0.1%	0.2%

Recorded manufacture-year bands, shares of all accidents

Manufacture band	Accidents	Share of all
Year of manufacture 1958 to 1962	15	1.5%
Year of manufacture 1963 to 1964	19	1.9%
Year of manufacture 1965 to 1967	98	10.1%
Year of manufacture 1968 to 1973	107	11.0%
Year of manufacture 1974 to 2025	60	6.2%
Unknown year of manufacture	676	69.3%
Family aircraft in different manufacture-year bands	0	0.0%

What to take from the numbers

• Expect a small, thin market. Our sample had 10 priced listings with a median ask of $52,500, and one airplane can move that number.
• Treat an asking price as an opening line. These are what sellers want. The sample cannot see what buyers pay.
• Ask for engine time since overhaul, not only airframe hours. The median airframe in our sample has flown 4,895 hours, and the listings do not say how the engine is doing.
• Do not read a valid registration as a clean bill of health. Status V is paperwork, not an inspection.
• Budget with your own quotes. Fuel, engine fund, annual inspection, insurance and storage all depend on you and your airfield. The calculator above does the arithmetic once you fill them in.

Questions buyers ask

How much does a new Cessna 150 cost?

Nothing, because it is out of production. The last model the FAA approved, the 150M, dates from 1974. The used market is the only market.

How much does a used Cessna 150 cost?

In a one-day sample of asking prices on Controller.com, the median ask was $52,500, from $36,000 to $136,000, across 10 priced listings. Those are asking prices, not sales, and the sample is small.

How many Cessna 150 aircraft are there?

The FAA register lists 8,241 aircraft in the 150 family, 8,058 with a valid registration. The 150L is the most common label, with 1,448 records.

How many Cessna 150 accidents has the NTSB recorded?

The NTSB files hold 975 accidents from 2000 through 2025, 178 of them fatal. These are counts, not rates, because flying hours by model are not published.

What engine does the Cessna 150 have?

Every 150 model on the FAA data sheet has a 100 hp Continental O-200-A. Modified aircraft need their own approved specifications.

Sources and how the numbers were made

Data through: FAA 2026-10-12; NTSB 2026-09-30; asking sample 2026-10-14.

How the numbers were made: We counted matching FAA registrations and showed valid registrations (status V) separately. We combined the NTSB files, counted each accident once and excluded incidents. Used prices are summaries of advertised prices. Fuel cost examples multiply published fuel burn by example fuel prices.

Privacy: No personal data is used in the published results. No owner, seller, crew, operator, narrative or individual accident record is published.

• Federal Aviation Administration. Releasable Aircraft Database. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The registry supplies fleet counts by model, build year, registrant type and state.
  Source SHA-256: ad4497553c4b71a14e7a0768b2e9c66974998ced50177a963b7942eabc259dec
• Federal Aviation Administration. Aircraft Registration Database Description. Retrieved 2026-10-13. This document explains registration status and registrant-type codes.
• Federal Aviation Administration. Pilot Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. Glossary. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The glossary explains the annual inspection interval.
  Source SHA-256: 210d7cebd33f4094af682b49cb83a93505bebfe3d22e7db4de25dbdaa5476140
• Continental Aerospace Technologies. Service Document Master Index. Retrieved 2026-10-14. The index identifies maker service documents needed to check engine overhaul intervals.
  Source SHA-256: 80ce6e70cc49ba5ae2e2334e7ee237acac558559b9d9e07132b141e61aa284b1
  Text SHA-256: 9ff4d28352b841db92418a612d231a8d7981deb598974c95afa13447a09b2476
• National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation accident data: avall. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The later accident file supplies counts, fatal outcomes, phases of flight, findings and manufacture years.
  Source SHA-256: bc74fefb1b39e1b86700a4be82b8ff6014bb1f6d81008524de73f2ddbd38b052
  Database SHA-256: c891b8a6fe55651294a0cb0fa328e5648833caf5ac62b1c21d6caf3ea5e99bb7
• National Transportation Safety Board. Historical aviation accident data: Pre2008. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The historical accident file supplies earlier counts and its own phase and finding categories.
  Source SHA-256: 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
  Database SHA-256: c2102e7e9f6773ab25c5564904db9b02d0a6d58ad8e73b3e9accda349ea85b9a
• National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation data dictionaries. Retrieved 2026-10-13. Each file's dictionary defines the accident codes used here.
• National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation data download directory. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The directory gives the accident files' release dates.
• National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation database release notes. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The release notes explain file coverage and how causes and contributing factors are marked.
• National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation accident database query help. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The help page explains event dates, first phases, investigation status and limits on foreign investigations.
• National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation accident database. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The database page explains the geographic limits of these accident records.
• Federal Aviation Administration. General Aviation and Part 135 Activity Survey. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The survey reports flight hours by aircraft category, which cannot support a model accident rate.
• Federal Aviation Administration. Type Certificate Data Sheet No. 3A19. Retrieved 2026-10-14. The FAA sheet supplies certified approval dates, engines, power, weights, fuel capacities and seating for the covered models.
  Source SHA-256: 6988f6a0346a0573e6cc0f3de9a66d7629e1a7f5ae07484b2c10338aceb4996a
  Text SHA-256: 13b1269699e06ca29ecc0315ac240a5664fcd8506be3c454b446e4c3192c8613
• Controller.com. Cessna 150 aircraft for sale. Retrieved 2026-10-14. The advertised prices supply model medians, ranges and airframe hours for the dated sample.

Send corrections and a supporting source through the contact page. We check each correction against the source.