Airliners.net

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Globe icon of the infobox
Airliners.net
Airplane photo database
languages English
operator Vertical scope
editorial staff Johan Lundgren
On-line 1994 (currently active)
http://www.airliners.net

Airliners.net is an aviation - site , mainly a photo database with more than 3 million entries (2019) of airplanes , helicopters offering and other aircraft and aviation-related infrastructure (including airports, aircraft carriers). There is also a knowledge database on the subject of commercial aircraft on the site.

history

The airliners.net project was launched in 1994. The Swedish student Johan Lundgren had previously published a collection of his own aircraft photos on his website Pictures of Modern Airliners . Over time, Lundgren received photos from other enthusiasts, which were also available for viewing in a section called Your Photos . In 1997 the company moved to its own web server and renamed it to the name airliners.net, which is still known today. The website has been expanded to include technical information on the aircraft shown, discussion forums for aviation photographers and a web shop for aviation items. As the number of servers and storage capacity increased, the technical infrastructure was housed in the premises of the Luleå University of Technology .

In July 2007, the project was acquired by a commercial provider, Demand Media , based in Santa Monica , and has been operated from there ever since. This step was massively criticized by some users, as they feared that the project would be commercialized. Lundgren and Demand Media justified the measure with the now enormous organizational effort.

Photos and information that are published are still being checked for content and quality by volunteer, experienced employees, so-called "screeners". The prerequisite for the selection of a published photo is that the presentation is of high quality or that a historically noteworthy event is presented.

At the beginning of 2017, the website was taken over by the online marketing service provider Vertical Scope.

system

Emergency landing of an Airbus A320 , Flight 292 of the airline JetBlue on September 21, 2005 at Los Angeles International Airport .

The website is funded by advertisements from airlines or manufacturers in the aviation and travel industries.

Users can download images from the website for their own use. These images are identified by markings , for example the words "airliners.net" or the name of the photographer. The resolution shown is limited for anonymous users. A user account for uploading images is free.

Full participation in all discussion forums is possible for a one-time fee of USD 25.

For registered users of the website ("First Class Members"), who pay a monthly fee of USD 5, the restriction of the image resolution and the display of advertisements do not apply. There is also an area for paying users to compile their own photo album.

Visitor numbers

The site is accessed around three million times a day by around 200,000 visitors and was also presented in various media outside the English-speaking area as a high-quality source of information.

Sister projects

Users also meet outside of the online community - mostly at airports such as Amsterdam, Manchester, Barcelona, ​​Madrid / Las Palmas, Zurich or Toronto.

Due to the strict selection criteria for the acceptance of photos, there was also a sister site MyAviation.net, where almost all aviation photos were accepted. However, this website was taken offline in December 2014.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Announcement about the relocation of Johan Lundgren's project
  2. a b Report in the magazine aero, February 2005 edition ( Memento from March 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.0 MB)
  3. ^ Announcement: Airliners.net has been acquired by VerticalScope - Airliners.net. Retrieved April 17, 2017 (UK English).
  4. Website with web links to press releases about airliners.net on airliners.net (English), accessed on April 16, 2007 ( Memento from April 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Web links