Wikipedia:WikiProject Aviation/Style guide/Naming
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Naming conventions
In general, article naming should prefer what the greatest number of English speakers would most easily recognize, with a reasonable minimum of ambiguity, while at the same time making linking to those articles easy and second nature. The names of Wikipedia articles should be optimized for readers over editors, and for a general audience over specialists. In this case WikiProject members would be considered specialists.
Accidents
An article should be named as "AIRLINE FLIGHT NUMBER", for example Air Florida Flight 90, or if there is no flight number, then "DATE LOCATION AIRLINE AIRCRAFT TYPE crash", for example 2007 Mogadishu TransAVIAexport Airlines Il-76 crash.
- Note: Where an aviation incident article does not use a common name or descriptive name as a title, and instead begins with the opening sentence: Airline Flight XYZ...., it should go on to immediately describe the notability of the incident in as few as words as possible. For this reason, it is not necessary in the opening line to clarify that the flight number may still be in use, or where it is normally scheduled to fly - this is because the normal flight or flight number is not the subject of the article. For example:
- Madeup Airway Flight 123 was a passenger flight from Somewhere to Somewhere Else, that on such and such a day, failed/crashed/blew up/was hijacked.
- Madeup Airway Flight 123 is a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Somewhere to Somewhere Else. On such and such a day, the aircraft used on this flight failed/crashed/blew up/was hijacked.
- Madeup Airway Flight 123 was a passenger flight from Somewhere to Somewhere Else, that on such and such a day, failed/crashed/blew up/was hijacked.
- See also: Wikipedia:Lead_section#First_sentence.
Aircraft
In general, 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.
For guidelines specific to variants of British military aircraft refer to Wikipedia:WikiProject Aviation/Style guide/Naming (British military aircraft).
Airlines
Articles are placed under the most common English version of their name, for example Malaysia Airlines, El Al.
Airports
- Criteria
- In general use the word airport (or airfield, aerodrome, airbase as appropriate) in the article name.
- Try to avoid long and unwieldy names like Dakar-Yoff-Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport, this statement does not preclude the use of such names.
- Try to use a name that is sourced from a government agency, or the airport operator. If you have multiple choices, use the name that is most commonly used and is precise so that a dab is not needed.
When creating airport articles, redirects should be created from any additional names that the airport may be known as. Check to see if other airports have the same name, which is quite common if you use a common name like Tri-Cities Airport or Tri-City Airport. Likewise only using the city/state/country name can also produce conflicts like San Jose Airport. Be aware that many airport articles do not yet exist so doing a search on Wikipedia for other airports with the same name can produce misleading results.
Biographies
Generally, article naming should prefer what the greatest number of English speakers would most easily recognize, with a reasonable minimum of ambiguity, while at the same time making linking to those articles easy and second nature.
If that name is with a middle name or an abbreviation, make the Wikipedia article name conform to that format.
Military and award winners are sometimes identified with titles; Heinrich Gontermann is Heinrich Ritter von Gontermann after being awarded the Military Order of Max Joseph. Use the most commonly cited name, and create redirects from the other variations.