Mention should be given to Thomas Becher’s “Flying the Web” column in the print numbers of Airliners. This recently concluded work was of great assistance in determining the most helpful web sites, current and retrospective (including significant attention paid to civil aircraft sites). It is hoped that someone else will step up to resume the bimonthly essays.
The first and foremost resource is AIR: Aviation Internet Resources located at Http://www. air-online. com. This is the premier civil aviation site on the Web, updated weekly. A number of searchable databases are included with links for such topics as aviation, photographs, and aviation resources (magazines, museums, FBOs, etc.) The primary database of interest is the “Airline Website Database” that provides both official and unofficial listings of every airline homepage available.
AIR is particularly helpful in the provision of a listing, every few weeks, of new Web sites and in the provision of a strong news service, with links to the outstanding Yahoo recaps. Also covered are all sorts of Aviation resources, including online magazines and sites to magazines, such as Australian Aviation, offering online articles or news reports.
Unfortunately, just as this encyclopedia was nearing completion, this site disappeared-another example of a first-rate resource to leave cyberspace without warning.
In the summer of 1999, Malcolm Ginsberg introduced the free, weekly “Air and Business Travel News” by e-mail or at the online site of Aviation Directories located at Http://www. abtn. co. uk, which has, within the past month, been taken over by publishers of Flight International. Written in an engaging, personal style, news stories contain links to carriers and other sites mentioned as well as notes on aviation topics or events of interest to the title’s author. The Directory of British Aviation, 1999-2000 was available at the same site. The ultimate fate of Ginsburg’s online contribution is not known at this writing.
There are a dozen individual online guides recommended for keeping up-to-date on airline and airliner news. Others, as noted, are similarly useful.
Moving up in line to replace AIR as one of the of most-helpful sites is Landings, which bills itself as “ The Busiest Aviation Hub.” Created in 1984 and located at Http://www. landings. com, it deserves its crown, receiving over 11 million “hits” each month. Offering a complete range of professional databases (including weather and flight planning information for pilots) and powerful search engines, Landings is updated daily with news, expert mediated forums, links, and even a personal Web site service. There is even a registration link where you can type in an aircraft registration number and learn details of its construction and service.
Aviation Safety Network has two listings, with the second being the most preferred: Http://www. aviation-safety. net and Http://www. web. in-ter. NL. net/users/H. Ranter. Harro Ranter’s site provides frequent (usually weekly) updates and links to news sources about airline incidents and accidents around the world, as well as links to government safety agencies and various safety studies. Invaluable is its database containing details on every “airliner hull loss” since 1945.
Two newer sites are AirlineSafety. Com located at Http://www. airline-safety. com, which includes links, book reviews, and other helpful data accessible via a menu. Crashsite. Com at Http://www. crashsite. com offers photographs, links, and a database that covers over 1,000 crashes.
The monthly National Transportation Safety Board NTSB—Accident Synopses located at Http://www. ntsb. gov/Aviation/months. htm provides details on every accident/incident involving a U. S. registered aircraft since 1983. A similar resource is the Air Safety Investigation Resource at Http://www. startext. net/homes/mikem, which provides links to daily accident reports from both the FAA and NTSB.
Just Plane Videos located at Http://www. justplanes. com not only offers purchasers its high-quality airliner VHS productions, but more importantly here, provides readers with twice-weekly airline and airliner news updates. This resource also contains perhaps the most up-to-date list of airline links.
The Web sites of Airliners and Air Transport World (see Journal Publishers, below) also offer extremely helpful daily news roundups.
Also available by e-mail subscription is the twice-weekly A VFlash, a service from AVWeb, the Magazine for Aviators on the World Wide Web located at Http://www. avweb. com. AVFlash summarizes the latest aviation news, articles, products, features and events featured on AVWeb. Many of the selections available at this site are written by well-known names in aviation journalism.
Airjet Airline World News at Http://www. airlinebiz. com provides a free daily compendium of world airliner and airline news and is also available by e-mail subscription.
Another recommended site is PlaneBusiness: The Airline Industry Business and Financial Site at Http://www. planebusiness. com. As its title indicates, this site concentrates on fiscal matters. Important subdivisions include “Quotes and Charts,” “Earnings,” and “Financials.” If you have missed the company press release and want to know, for example, the latest quarterly earnings of a given carrier, PlaneBusiness might be your first stop.
Another helpful resource is AeroWorldNet: A Weekly Aerospace Magazine on the Internet located at Http://www. aeroworldnet. com, containing numerous topical sections upgraded every Monday. News briefs, aerospace jobs, people and places, industry literature, industry products, aerospace events, companies, products and services, and careers, and industry associations are covered, with links. The site’s most valuable feature, however, is a search engine that allows entry into a three-year full-text article archive. Two continuing series are particularly helpful: “This Week in Russian Aerospace,” and “This Week in CIS Aerospace.”
Another helpful source is The Air Bulletin at Http://www. airconnex. com/bulletin from ConnexWorks, which has been published weekly since March 28, 1997 as the Internet’s sole free weekly bulletin dedicated to civil aviation on a global scale and has a full archive. Included on the site are airline news reports and analysis, cargo trends, aircraft orders, and the latest in cyber-traveling under its many forms.
Equally useful is the weekly Airwise Airline News at Http://www. air-wise. com from Airwise: The Airport and Air Travel Guide. In addition to a news index, the site provides links to news stories from the major airlines and airline alliances.
Aeroseek: Aviation Search Engine and Directory located at http:// Www. aeroseek. com allows keyword searching or selection via a list of categories. This site may reveal links not previously uncovered.
The most difficult region from which to obtain consistent doses of airline news is Russia and the CIS. There are several choices to help to address this problem. The free Avia. Ru: Russian News & Information Server at Http://www. avia. ru includes news, articles and interviews, reviews, and a listing of regulations and can be searched. Concise Aerospace Business to Business Information: Russian Aerosapce Issues located at Http://www. conciseb2b. com/aerospace is a subscription service that offers a daily news update and a two-year back file. A taste of what is available may be can be found by checking the first lines of available stories. Interestingly, many of the same stories are freely available by employing the search box at its sister site, Russia Today, located at Http://www. russiatoday. com.
Concise 2B2 Information is starting the construction of a Web-based database containing information on all Russian and CIS airlines at Http://www. concise. corduroy. co. uk.
The Lausanne, Switzerland-based law firm of Ziegler & Partner has posted its Links to Russian Airlines and Aviation Organization at Http://www. studyrussian. com/links. In addition to a group of airport, ATC, regulatory, and educational organizations, the site provides links to recommended Russian airlines. Among these leads are the only known links to Russian-language-only carriers, e. g., Saratov Airlines. Turkish World Aviation at Http://havayollari. webjump. com is particularly valuable for keeping up with the airlines of Central Asia.
The Airline Data Website located at Http://www. airline-data. com is sponsored by Data Base Products and provides links to air carriers, airports, and news. It also provides name and code information for the airlines of the U. S., Middle America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Africa, Eastern Europe, Russia, Canada & Greenland, Australasia & Oceania, and the Far East.
Other sites worth visiting include Gabriele Re Ceccni’s Italian Airli-nesi at Http://www. digilander. iol. it/flymxp/Pia. html, which is dedicated to a review of information on past and present carriers. AirTransport. Com: El Portal Latino Para el Profesional de la Aviacion at http:// Www. latintraveler. com/default atcom proncipal. asp is a Spanish language site with up-to-the-minute news reports on the activities of Latin American airlines. Finally The Airline History Website at Http://www. airlines. freeuk. com by Sarah Ward profiles several hundred air transport concerns, with photos, from the 1920s to date. Some entries are more complete than others.
World History
