Updated 01-Mar-2021
About ...
... me
I graduated as aeronautical engineer from Delft University in 1982. For most of
my working life I have been employed at the
Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) in Amsterdam, working on helicopter
related topics. Activities range from flight performance to flying qualities,
from helicopter pre-design to flight testing, from operational support to
flight simulations, from flight safety to teaching drone operators, etc.
My hobby started as being an aircraft spotter. Once the decision was made to concentrate
on helicopters, it was a small step to start building a civil rotorcraft registrations
database. At first just for The Netherlands, then also for Belgium and Luxembourg,
and the rest of Europe. Soon this evolved into the worldwide Rotorspot database.
... the database
The Rotorspot database contains worldwide registration data for civil (and to
a lesser extent for military) rotorcraft. The database includes information on
registration, rotorcraft type, construction number, registration history, and
final fate. There is no owner/user/operator information in the database and
data are strictly used for non-commercial purposes. The database is continuously
updated with information from various sources.
Currently, the database contains more than 170 350
civil rotorcraft registrations for more than 95 970
individual rotorcraft. Over the years the database has been growing with an average annual
increase of about 5100 civil rotorcraft registrations and about 2800 individual rotorcraft.
Definition
‘Rotorcraft’ to this respect means a heavier-than-air aircraft that depends
principally for its support in flight on the lift generated by one or more rotors.
Therefore, the Rotorspot database and website exclude all aircraft types with
lifting propellers. Furthermore, unmanned rotorcraft below 150 kg are excluded.
... the website
The Rotorspot website publishes data extracted from the database. On this website
one can find current (active) and historical (complete) civil rotorcraft registers
for every country in the world, complete production lists for a growing range of
rotorcraft types, and, last but not least, a searchable rotorcraft database.
The main purpose of this website is to provide quick access to rotorcraft type,
identity, registration and history. E.g. when you have a registration and are
looking for the correct type or identity, the website will provide it. Based on
that first step, one then can make further research using other, more elaborate
sources.
The first release of the Rotorspot website was in 1999, and the switch to www.rotorspot.nl
was made in 2009. From the best of my knowledge, this website's contents do not
duplicate anything publicly available in book form or on other websites. Some
national aircraft registers or rotorcraft production lists are published in books
and on websites, but in different formats.
The Rotorspot website requires JavaScript and has been tested for proper displaying
in various browsers. All CSS, HTML and PHP coding on the website has been validated
for standards compliance using appropriate tools. Although this guarantees a website
without coding format errors, it does not guarantee an error-free appearance in
different browsers. If you do encounter problems of any kind, feel free to inform
me and the issue will be corrected as soon as possible.
Disclaimer
The Rotorspot database and website are a private initiative and have no links with
commercial organisations. Rotorspot.nl reserves the right not to accept any liability,
nor to be responsible for the content of external links. All Rotorspot registration data
can be used freely (with due credit to www.rotorspot.nl),
but strictly for non-commercial applications. Note that all pictures are copyrighted by
the respective photographers and therefore can not be used without permission from said
copyright owner.
Colofon
Database and website maintenance: Jos Stevens
First release of Rotorspot website: September 1st, 1999
Official release of 'www.rotorspot.nl': July 1st, 2009