Agent skill · research science · mvanhorn
pp-airframe
Aircraft forensics from open public records — tail-number dossiers, fleet research, model-level safety, and NTSB event archaeology. Trigger phrases: `look up tail number`, `who owns this plane N…`, `what aircraft does <company> own`, `safety record of <aircraft model>`, `accident history for`, `crash history for <aircraft model>`, `find aircraft registered to`, `NTSB event ERA…`, `use airframe`, `run airframe`. Secondary (day-of only, requires flight-goat + within 72hr of departure): `is UA<flight> safe`, `what plane is <flight>`.
Why this skill is useful
Adds specific commands and workflows for aircraft forensics that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires airframe-pp-cli installed locally. About 7k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-06. 1,890 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
airframe — Printing Press CLI Prerequisites: Install the CLI This skill drives the airframe-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first: 1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows: 2. Verify: airframe-pp-cli --version 3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill. If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.6 or newer): If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds. The two-tier model (read this first, every invocation) Tier Dataset Install requirement Answers questions like ------ --------- --------------------- ------------------------ 1 FAA Aircraft Registry none — just airframe-pp-cli "Who owns N12345?" • "How old is this plane?" • "What aircraft does Berkshire Hathaway own?" • "What type is this Mode-S code?" 2 NTSB CAROL accident database mdbtools package "How safe is a Cessna 172?" • "Crash history for the Boeing 737 MAX 8" • "Has tail N12345 ever been in an incident?" • "Probable cause of event ERA22LA001" airframe flight <ident> additionally requires flight-goat-pp-cli installed + FLIGHTGOATAPIKEYAUTH set, and only works within ~72 hours of departure (airlines don't assign a specific tail to a flight before then). For pre-purchase or pre-booking "is my flight safe" questions, use a Tier 2 model-level lookup with the equipment type from the booking site. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills mvanhorn/airframe