Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/page content

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Please note
A few Wikipedians have gotten together to make some suggestions about how we might organize data in articles about aircraft. Again, these are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you should not feel obligated in the least to follow them.

However, if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following these guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles!
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This is a set of suggested guidelines for articles on specific aircraft types. Some wikipedians prefer a standardised look and feel to articles on closely-related subjects and these guidelines exist to facilitate achieving that goal for articles about aircraft.

For general guidelines about writing and editing Wikipedia articles, see Category:Wikipedia style guidelines.

Contents

[edit] Name

Main article: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (aircraft)

Every article in Wikipedia has a name, and most aircraft articles are named by their manufacturer, then by name and/or designation number, for example Boeing 747, Supermarine Spitfire.

Articles should always be named as generally as possible, so an article should only be named after a subtype (e.g. Messerschmitt Bf 109G) if writing about that specific version of the aircraft. Usually this will mean that we already have a more general article about the aircraft, relevant to all subtypes. If no general article exists, it may be worthwhile expanding the article slightly so that it encompasses all variants of the aircraft.

[edit] Introduction

Every article should begin with a short introduction naming the aircraft, its manufacturer(s), and the general category of aircraft it belongs to. For example:

The Cessna 172 Skyhawk received its type certificate from the FAA in 1955. It is an all-metal, four-seat, single-engine, high-wing airplane with one door under each wing. The 172 was a direct descendant of the earlier Cessna 170, which used conventional (tailwheel) landing gear instead of tricycle (nosewheel) gear.

Without going any further, a reader should already have a good basic idea of what kind of aircraft the article is describing.

[edit] Infobox

If the article is of moderate length or longer, an infobox is often a good way to sum up relevant information. {{Infobox Aircraft}} presents data such as manufacturer, maiden flight, service entry and retirement dates, number produced, and other quick facts in a fairly attractive and concise fashion. For the most part, as there is an appropriate field in the infobox itself, including the manufacturer in the "name" field is not necessary. Some exceptions exist, such as aircraft which only have model numbers.

Based on several past discussions, the infobox is purely optional, though infoboxes including specifications are frowned upon. {{Infobox Aircraft}} was designed with input from the project and its use is encouraged.

[edit] Body

The body of the article describes the aircraft in greater detail. This information is often best arranged in sections, especially in longer articles. Some frequently used sections in aircraft articles include any and all of the following:

Development
Describing the history behind the aircraft, often discussing why a manufacturer, airline, or air force felt there was a need for such an aircraft.
Design
Describing design, and major features of the aircraft. If noteworthy describe markings that the aircraft flew in, especially distinguishing or unusual schemes. (Can be combined with above section as "Design and Development" if both sections are small, or if the text works better it they are covered together.)
Operational history
Describing the history of the aircraft in use. This section is something like a "biography" of the aircraft.
Variants
Describing major subtypes or variants of the aircraft. These can be arranged in subsections - see Messerschmitt Me 163 for an example of how this can be done.
Operators
Usually a collection of links to airlines or individual air force squadrons that used this type. May be separated into Military and Civilian sections if applicable and workable.
Incidents
A listing of notable aircraft incidents and accidents, where appropriate. Accidents or incidents should only be included if
  • The event was fatal to either aircraft occupants or persons on the ground;
  • The event involved hull loss or serious damage to the aircraft or airport;
  • The event resulted in changes to procedures, regulations or processes affecting airports, airlines or the aircraft industry.
Survivors (or Aircraft on display)
Usually a collection of aircraft exhibited in museums. When large amount of aircraft is still preserved, list should be limited to most prominent ones.

[edit] Aircraft specifications

Note: through much of 2004, WikiProject Aircraft was using a table to present aircraft specifications, now archived.

This is a short summary of aircraft's characteristics and performance. If an article doesn't have specifications, you can either tag the article with {{aero-specs}} or add them yourself. Please use the new {{Aircraft specifications}} conditional template when adding specifications; details and a brief explanation are available on the template's talk page. You can either copy-and-paste the template into the page or type {{subst:airspec-imp}} for imperial (metric) units or {{subst:airspec-met}} for metric (imperial) units where the Specifications section would go. The blank template will be inserted when you save the page.

By convention, specifications are laid out as follows:

[edit] Specifications (variant described)

General characteristics

  • Length: ft in (m)
  • Wingspan: ft in (m)
  • Height: ft in (m)
  • Wing area: ft (m)
  • Empty weight: lb (kg)
  • Loaded weight: lb (kg)
  • Useful load: lb (kg)
  • Max takeoff weight: lb (kg)

Performance

  • Power/mass: hp/lb ( kW/kg)
  • Thrust/weight: total thrust / loaded weight
Armament
  • Guns:
  • Bombs:
  • Rockets:
  • Missiles:
  • Other:

Note that these specifications should relate to a specific variant of the aircraft, and be labelled accordingly. Usually this will be the most famous/noteworthy/numerous one.

Please keep in mind that if a line is not applicable to a particular aircraft type, it should be omitted, for example "powerplant" for sailplanes. On the other hand, if data is applicable but you simply don't know it, please leave the line in place to remind others to fill it in. If you're using the template, simply leave the line blank rather than omitting it.
  • Capacity is for airliners and military transports
  • Power for piston engines, Thrust for jets and rockets. Of course, a few types will have both. Therefore, Thrust/weight will also apply only to jets and rocket aircraft, and Power/mass to propeller aircraft. Delete whatever's not appropriate.
  • Maximum speed may (and probably should) be given as a Mach number for supersonic aircraft.

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/Units for a more detailed discussion of units.


[edit] Engine specifications

Piston engines (all reciprocating engines, including rotary engines)

Please use the Pistonspecs template.

[edit] Specifications (variant described)

General characteristics

  • Type: (example: seven-cylinder supercharged air-cooled radial piston engine)
  • Bore: in (mm)
  • Stroke: in (mm)
  • Displacement: in³ (L)
  • Length: in (mm)
  • Diameter: in (mm)
  • Dry weight: lb (kg)

Components

  • Valvetrain: (example: two pushrod-actuated valves per cylinder with sodium-cooled exhaust valve, overhead camshaft-actuated, two intake and two exhaust valves per cylinder, sodium-cooled exhaust valve stems)³
  • Supercharger: (example: two-speed two-stage, boost pressure automatically linked to the throttle, water-air aftercooler installed between the second stage and the engine)
  • Turbocharger:
  • Fuel system: (example: twin-choke updraft carburetor with automatic mixture control)
  • Fuel type:
  • Oil system: (example: dry sump with one pressure pump and two scavenge pumps)
  • Cooling system: (example: 70% water and 30% ethylene glycol coolant mixture, pressurized)

Performance

Jet engines (includes turbojets, turbofans, turboprops, and turboshafts)
Please use the Jetspecs template.

[edit] Specifications (variant described)

General characteristics

Components

  • Compressor: (example: single-stage dual-entry centrifugal compressor with two-sided impeller; axial compressor should also be wiki-linked)
  • Combustion chambers: (example: 10 flow combustion chambers with igniter plugs in chambers 3 and 10)
  • Turbine: (example: single-stage axial flow with 54 blades)
  • Fuel type: (example: aviation kerosene with 1% lubricating oil)
  • Oil system: US gal ( L) capacity, circulation rate US gal/h ( L/h), maximum inverted flying time
  • Cooling system:

Performance

  • Overall pressure ratio:
  • Thrust: lbf ( kN) at rpm for takeoff; lbf ( kN) at rpm for cruise; lbf ( kN) at rpm at idle.
  • Air consumption: lb/s (kg/s)
  • Turbine inlet temperature: °F (°C)
  • Fuel consumption: lb/h ( kg/h) at maximum power; lb/hr ( kg/h) at cruise power; lb/h ( kg/h) at idle
  • Specific fuel consumption: (acceptable alternative to fuel consumption)
  • Oil consumption: US gal/h ( L/h)
  • Thrust-to-weight ratio:

[edit] Units

For general Wikipedia conventions on units, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers).

See Units page for conversion factors.

[edit] Thrust-to-weight ratio

The main purpose of having this ratio specified is to compare different engines and vehicles. We therefore need to be as consistent as possible within the wikipedia; and as consistent as possible with external sources.

The main difficulty is that whilst thrust has units of force, Weight here can either mean mass (kg or lb) or force due to gravity (N or lbf). If the latter, the figure is characteristically dimensionless and requires no conversion. Note that any metric and imperial unit usage must be consistent- use of lb's or kg's implies a thrust/mass ratio is specified.

Preferred:

(By about 100 times this is the most common usage found- this is very much preferred; also see [1].)
  • Thrust/weight ratio of 0.3

Acceptable in some cases:

These usages should only be used to reflect the data source used for the article, to avoid unnecessary conversions which lose accuracy due to rounding issues, note that a dimensionless quantity is always present for comparison purposes to minimise the possibility of confusion. Not also that the raw data from the datasource is specified first.
  • Thrust/weight ratio of 1 lbf/lb (9.81 N/kg, 1)
  • Thrust/weight ratio of 9.81 N/kg (1 lbf/lb, 1)
  • Thrust/weight ratio of 1.3:1
  • Thrust/weight ratio of 1 (1 lbf/lb, 9.81 N/kg)
Sometimes a 'thrust/mass' ratio is quoted by a data source as dimensionless. This typically means they're really quoting a thrust/weight ratio. Wherever possible this should be confirmed from another source, but rewriting it in the preferred or acceptable forms is justified, but should preferably be commented on in the talk page or using '< ! - >' style angle brackets invisibly in the article itself.

Deprecated:

  • Thrust/mass ratio of 1 lbf/lb (9.81 N/kg) - please quote thrust/weight as well
  • Thrust/mass ratio of 1 -thrust to mass cannot be dimensionless, convert
  • Thrust:weight ratio of 1 (9.81 N/kg) - include both lbf/lb as well as N/kg is preferred
  • Thrust/weight ratio of 9.81 (1 lbf/lb) - mathematically impossible!

[edit] Specific Impulse

The correct units for specific impulse are seconds in both imperial and SI units. (See Rocket Propulsion Elements by George P. Sutton and Oscar Biblarz, seventh edition et al). Therefore no conversion need be employed.

Sometimes specific impulse is incorrectly, but not unusually listed as a velocity or as Ns/kg. This is in fact a different quantity known as 'c', the effective exhaust velocity. This can take the units m/s (or equivalently, from Newton's third law Ns/kg) or ft/s. Its use is deprecated, but may be employed if quoted by a manufacturer, or added in addition to the specific impulse.

[edit] Aircraft unit costs

A helpful essay on understanding how different types of aircraft costs are reported, what they mean, and whether they should be used in an article or the {{infobox Aircraft}} is User:Askari Mark/Understanding aircraft unit costs. It is recommended that flyaway cost for military aircraft or retail price for commercial aircraft be used in the Infobox Aircraft since these are the most commonly available costs and thus provide readers with a means for “apples and apples” comparison of relative costs.

[edit] Popular culture

A "Popular culture" section should be avoided per Wikipedia:Avoid trivia sections in articles unless the appearances are especially notable. This section should not be a compendium of every trivial appearance, but significant ones of relevance to the airframe. The canonical example would be Top Gun for the F-14 Tomcat. Due to the large number of survey and arcade simulations, an effort should be made to avoid tallying every sim appearance unless there are very few of them. Fictional versions and speculation about fictional likenesses should not be included, as they constitute original research.

[edit] See also

This section contains links to other aircraft-related material in Wikipedia. There is a template available, {{Aircontent}} , with parameters for the below sections as well as external links. It also automatically includes the {{airlistbox}} template described below.

By convention, this section includes:

See also: Links to other related articles not already linked.
Related development: are those that this aircraft were developed from, or which were developed from it. Many aircraft will be stand-alone developments with no relatives, in which case this line should not be used.
e.g.: For the P-51 Mustang, "Related development" would include at least the F-82 Twin Mustang, CAC Kangaroo, Cavalier Mustang and Piper Enforcer.
Comparable aircraft: are those of similar role, era, and capability to this one. This will always be somewhat subjective, of course, but try to keep this as tight as possible. Again, some aircraft will be one-of-a-kind and this line will be inappropriate.
e.g.: aircraft comparable to the Boeing 707 include the Convair 880 and Douglas DC-8
Lists: relevant lists that this aircraft appears in
e.g. the Saab Viggen is listed in the List of military aircraft of Sweden

[edit] References

This section contains details of print references and/or external links to websites used in the article. Wikipedia prefers the APA format, so that's what we should use as well (see here for a comprehensive example set, and here for a list of templates). To integrate your references into the article, please use the reference tags. Examples of citations:

Book source
Lincoln, Abraham; Grant, U. S.; & Davis, Jefferson (1861). Resolving Family Differences Peacefully (3rd ed.). Gettysburg: Printing Press. ISBN 0-12-345678-9.
Journal
Brandybuck, Meriadoc. (1955). "Herb-lore of the Shire". Journal of the Royal Institute of Chemistry 10 (2), 234–351.
Newspaper/Magazine articles
Blair, Eric Arthur (Aug. 29, 1949). "Looking forward to a bright tomorrow". New English Weekly, p. 57.
Websites
Gates, Bill & Ballmer, Steve (1998). "The Big Open-source Advocacy Homepage". Retrieved Aug. 5, 2003.
Other Wikipedias
Citau les fonts from the Catalan-language Wikipedia. Retrieved December 27, 2004.
Company press releases
Siemens AG (July 13, 1999). Shell and Siemens to develop emission-free fuel cell power plant. Press Release.

There are also templates that allow the automatic formatting of references based on the information you have available; for websites, use {{cite web | }}, and for books, use {{cite book | }}.

[edit] External links

This section contains links to external websites that were not reference material for the article, such as image sites. External links should summarize the website’s contents, and indicate why the website is relevant to the article. For further details see Wikipedia:External links.

[edit] Navboxes

Usually, we include a few navboxes to tie together aircraft by the same manufacturer or designated under the same sequence. The article ends with a final navbox that links together the bulk of Wikipedia's aviation content:

v • d • e
Lists relating to aviation
General
Military
Accidents/incidents
Records

This can also be implemented simply by typing {{Aviation lists}}, which adds the footer template at the end of the article.

[edit] Category

Aircraft are categorised primarily by their nationality, role, and era, for example Category:British airliners 1960-1969. A number of secondary categories also exist that link together aircraft with certain noteworthy features, such as Category:Swing-wing aircraft. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/Categories for a full description of the Category system.

[edit] Hints, tips, and finishing touches

Remember wherever possible to link the powerplants and weapons, preferably in the article, but in the table if not mentioned in the text.

Where appropriate, use "year in aviation", instead of "year" (e.g. [[2004 in aviation|2004]] instead of [[2004]]). Add significant events pertaining to the aircraft to the "year in aviation" page.

When you're done, please make sure to add your new article to list of aircraft, new powerplants to list of aircraft engines, and new weapons to the list of aircraft weapons. (Then, above them, there's also list of aircraft manufacturers and list of aircraft engine manufacturers and list of aviation topics,...)

[edit] Creating a new aircraft page

You can pre-fill a new aircraft page with all elements of the layout as follows:

  1. Create a new page.
  2. Type {{subst:aerostart}}.
  3. Save the page.
  4. The page will be now pre-formatted with the correct layout!
  5. At this point, the article will contain nothing but formatting elements - it's best to add a few short facts quickly and save the page again so that new page patrollers don't mistake it for a test or vandalism.
  6. After you create a new page, please add it to Wikipedia:New articles (Aircraft)

Finally, remember that you're in no way obliged to follow all, or even any, of these guidelines to contribute an article.