updated 01-May-2023
About rotorspot.nl
owner
I graduated as aeronautical engineer from Delft University in Sep-1982. From Feb-1985
until my retirement in Jul-2021 I was employed at the
Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) in Amsterdam, working on rotorcraft
related topics. Activities ranged from flight performance to flying qualities,
from 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.
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 (manufacturer listed as the company that designed
it), construction number, registration history (oldest to latest), and final fate.
There is no owner/operator information in the database, and data are strictly
used for non-commercial purposes. The database is continuously updated with
information from various sources.
The database contains more than 177 910
civil rotorcraft registrations for more than 99 830
individual civil rotorcraft. Over the years the database has been growing with an annual increase
of about 4800 rotorcraft registrations and about 2600 individual rotorcraft. The database also
contains a growing number of military rotorcraft and their serials/registrations.
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" (EASA aircraft classification). Therefore, the Rotorspot database and website exclude all aircraft types with lifting propellers. Furthermore, unmanned rotorcraft below 150 kg are excluded (EASA's initial regulatory framework used this mass value as a lower limit for unmanned aircraft being subject to EU regulation).
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 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 photographs are copyrighted by
the respective photographers and therefore can not be used without permission from said
copyright owner.
colophon
Database and website maintenance : Jos Stevens
Initial release of Rotorspot website : 01-Sep-1999
Official release of www.rotorspot.nl : 01-Jul-2009
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