Editorial Principles
Last updated
FLYPEDIA is an aviation encyclopedia. These are the principles it is written to: what it tries to do, what it refuses to do, and how it behaves when the record is unclear.
What FLYPEDIA is for
FLYPEDIA exists to explain aviation accurately and understandably: aircraft, airports, airlines, engines, manufacturers and the events that shaped them. It is a reference work and an educational resource. It is not a sales channel, an operational manual, or a source of advice for the planning or conduct of flight.
Nothing on FLYPEDIA should be used for the operation, maintenance, airworthiness assessment or navigation of an aircraft. Those decisions belong to current, approved documentation issued by manufacturers and aviation authorities.
Accuracy before completeness
An entry is written from sources, and no statement is added because it sounds plausible or because a gap looks untidy. Where a fact cannot be established from a source that was actually consulted, it is left out and the omission is allowed to show.
This means some entries are quieter than others. An aircraft with eighty years of service, dozens of variants and a long accident record will carry far more detail than one that entered service last year. That difference is deliberate: padding the second to match the first would mean inventing the material to do it.
Neutral, non-promotional description
Aircraft and companies are described, not advertised. FLYPEDIA has no commercial relationship with any manufacturer, operator or supplier, and no entry is written, shaped or omitted at the request of a subject.
Where an aircraft was commercially unsuccessful, controversial, or involved in significant accidents, that is part of its record and is covered on the same terms as its achievements.
Facts, interpretation, and the difference
Documented facts and editorial interpretation are kept distinguishable. A specification, a date or a production total is presented as a sourced fact. An assessment of why a design succeeded or failed is interpretation, and is written so that a reader can tell it apart from the record it rests on.
Where historians or engineers genuinely disagree about an interpretation, FLYPEDIA describes the disagreement rather than adopting one view and presenting it as settled.
When sources disagree
Aviation history has a habit of disagreeing with itself. Production totals shift depending on whether prototypes, conversions and licence-built airframes are counted. First-flight dates differ between company records and official registers. Performance figures vary with weight, altitude and who was selling the aeroplane.
When credible sources conflict, FLYPEDIA sets out the disagreement and says who reports what, rather than quietly picking whichever number looks tidiest. If the historical record is uncertain, FLYPEDIA would rather admit that than confidently invent an answer.
Consistency between comparable entries
Entries of the same kind follow the same structure, so that two aircraft can be read against each other and the shape of a page only has to be learned once. Sections appear in a fixed order.
A section is included only where the subject genuinely supports it. A missing section means there was nothing substantiated to say; it does not mean the subject lacked that aspect entirely.
Measurements and units
Each measurement is recorded once, and converted for display according to the units you choose. This avoids the common reference-work error of a figure and its conversion drifting apart over successive edits, leaving two different numbers for the same dimension.
Converted values are rounded for readability and should be treated as approximate. Where a source states a figure in a particular unit, that unit is preserved as the original.
Correction and revision
Entries are revised as better sources are found and as errors are reported. Being published is not a claim that an entry is finished. Readers who find an error are asked to report it, see the Corrections Policy for what to send and what happens next.