Airliners.net
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 Airliners.net Homepage (Post-2008 design) |
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| URL | Airliners.net |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Aircraft Photo Archive & Database |
| Owner | Demand Media |
| Created by | Johan Lundgren |
| Launched | September 1, 1997 |
| Revenue | Forum Memberships, Advertising |
| Current status | Active |
Airliners.net is an aviation website founded by Johan Lundgren, of Sweden, now owned by Demand Media.[1]
The site features a photo database, discussion forums, a chat room, and an aircraft history and information section. It claims to be the world's largest aviation website with over three million page views from 200,000 individuals daily,[2]
History
Airliners.net was created by Johan Lundgren in 1994, as an airliner database known as Pictures of Modern Airlines. In the year 1997, Pictures of Modern Airliners morphed into Airliners.net, an aviation photo database and forum website.
2008 Redesign
On May 29, 2008, the site was redesigned by Demand Media. This was the first major redesign since the site's inception. Elements of the new design included a modified home page layout, and the ability to select the color of the background of any page in the site.
Features
Photos
The photo database contains 1,903,622 (as of April 18, 2011) photographs of aircraft (the million-photo milestone was reached in May 2006), with accompanying information about the aircraft featured in the photographs. The database may be searched by keywords including aircraft registration, line number, location, type of photo, airline and photographer. To ensure the high quality of photographs in the database, photos are screened by photo screeners prior to being accepted. Photos can be commented on, rated, and purchased by visitors.
Discussions
The discussion forums are divided into sections, such as Civil Aviation, Military Aviation and Space, Technical/Operations, Aviation Photography, Photography Feedback, Aviation Hobbies, Non-aviation, and Site Related.[3]
In addition to the photo database and discussion forums, the website accepts aviation articles for publishing, has an automatic news service which gathers aviation news, maintains an information database about aircraft types (based on The International Directory of Civil Aircraft by Gerard Frawley).
Partner Sites
Airliners.net has a sister website, MyAviation.net, which accepts all photos and was started to cater for photos which do not pass the quality standards of Airliners.net's database. Another sister website is FlightLevel350.com, showcasing aviation videos.
Parody Sites
Various parodies of the website exist, most of which have been set up by former members. Examples include Airwhiners.net and Eurowhiners.net.
Member Meetings
Members of Airliners.net organize meetings in airports worldwide. Meetings have been held around the world. During some of these meetings people focus only on photography and spotting although the Zürich meet included organized behind the scenes tours of the airport operations.
Some meetings have been arranged with the purpose of, or in conjunction with, taking a flight on a specific airline or aircraft. Additionally, several 'Experience Meets' have been held, during which the focus is not necessarily on aviation, but instead to enjoy the location, its scenery and other attractions.
