Airliners.net is an

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

website that includes an extensive photo database of aircraft and airports, as well as a

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catering to aviation enthusiasts. Created by Johan Lundgren, Jr., the site originated in 1996 as ''Pictures of Modern Airliners''. It was acquired by

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(now known as Leaf Group) in 2007 and underwent a major redesign in 2016.

History

Johan Lundgren, Jr., an IT student/aviation enthusiast attending

Luleå University of Technology Luleå University of Technology is a Public Research University in Norrbotten County, Sweden. The university has four campuses located in the Arctic Region in the cities of Luleå, Kiruna, Skellefteå, and Piteå. With more than 19,000 students a ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, created the site ''Pictures of Modern Airliners'' in 1996.Rothfischer, Brigitte (February 2005)
"Best of Airliners.net"
(in German). '' Aero International'': 6–13. Retrieved 3 January 2016. Lundgren had been working on the site during his military service. It initially hosted only his own aircraft photos before a new section was created for other photographers to upload their photos. In 1997, Lundgren transitioned to a new site entitled ''Airliners.net'' and established a

web server A web server is computer software and underlying hardware that accepts requests via HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS. A user agent, commonly a web browser or web crawler, initiate ...

in his dormitory room. Three more servers were added, and eventually all servers were relocated to the computer rooms at the university. Lundgren started investing all of his time into the site, although he received help from a growing number of volunteers. On 27 July 2007, Lundgren announced that the site would be acquired by

. It was sold to the company for US$8.2 million. Reasons behind the decision included the difficulty of managing the rapidly growing site, which was by that point supported by 25 servers.Lundgren, Johan (27 July 2007)
"Big News On The Future Of Airliners.net"
. ''Airliners.net''. Retrieved 3 January 2016. A revamped site was launched on 14 June 2016. In February 2017, the site was acquired by VerticalScope, majority-owned by

Torstar Torstar Corporation is a Canadian mass media company which primarily publishes daily and community newspapers. In addition to the ''Toronto Star'', its flagship and namesake, Torstar also publishes daily newspapers in Hamilton, Peterborough, Ni ...

Membership

The site offers free membership, using

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instead as a source of revenue. Before the June 2016 redesign, Airliners.net provided three levels of membership: the Photographer Account, Premium Membership and First Class Membership. The latter two required payment while a Photographer Account could be created for free.

Features

The site has two main features: the photo database and the forum. The database contains over 2.7 million photos with over 8.6 billion total views as of June 2016. All photos undergo screening prior to being admitted to the database, which can be searched by various factors including aircraft type, the airport at which the photo was taken and the

aircraft registration An aircraft registration is a code unique to a single aircraft, required by Chicago Convention, international convention to be marked on the exterior of every civil aircraft. The registration indicates the aircraft's country of registration, and ...

. The forum is divided into ten subforums:

Civil Aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...

; Travel, Polls & Preferences; Technical/Operations; Aviation Hobby;

Aviation Photography Aviation photography is the act of taking images of aircraft, either in flight, or on the ground. Types of aviation photography include air-to-air, ground-to-air, ground-static, and remote photography. Military aviation photography, especially ...

; Photography Feedback; Trip Reports;

Military Aviation Military aviation comprises military aircraft and other flying machines for the purposes of conducting or enabling aerial warfare, including national airlift ( air cargo) capacity to provide logistical supply to forces stationed in a war the ...

Space Flight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either human spaceflight, with or uncrewed spaceflight, without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly w ...

; Non-Aviation; and Site Related. Airliners.net also offers a complimentary newsletter service and a database of information on aircraft types developed with the help of Aerospace Publications.

References

External links

Airliners.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Airliners.Net Internet properties established in 1997 Online databases Aviation websites Aviation Internet forums

History

Membership

Features

See also

References

External links