Wikipedia:Naming conventions (aircraft)
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 | This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
The naming of aircraft articles should follow a standard format of manufacturer-designation-name, for example Morane-Saulnier MS.755 Fleuret. In some cases the type may not have a designation or name or its inclusion would not make sense to meet the common name criteria.
- Manufacturer: This should be the main designer and manufacturer of the type. If the type has been produced by different companies or different company names then consensus should be reached on a case by case basis on which to use. Example include Supermarine Spitfire rather than Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire although either is correct the former is used by consensus. Be wary of using non-contemporary names like Boeing DC-3 or British Aerospace Spitfire.
- Designation: This should be either the manufacturer's designation or the military designation if more common such as Boeing E-3 Sentry. If an aircraft has multiple designations then use the most common or none if this would cause confusion.
- Name: This should be the official name either given by the manufacturer or the military. Do not use nicknames or foreign reporting names, (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 not Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed) for example. If the type has multiple names then either use the most common or none if this would cause confusion.
- Exceptions: Any guideline can have exceptions as some aircraft are so well known that it makes more sense to break the usual rules. In theory, the Anglo-French supersonic airliner should be the Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde, but it is so well known as just Concorde that it is better to use the common name.
- Redirect: Whatever format is agreed or used for an article then consideration should be given to create redirects from other variations of the name.
- Renaming: These guidelines should be considered when proposing the renaming of an article or the name of the article is disputed. Consideration should be given to renaming current articles when needed but they should not be renamed en masse without agreement from other editors.