aircraft industry

The pace of change has been breathtaking. "Aero Index" started 11 years ago as a reference book and quickly established itself as a standard work of reference for the aircraft, airline, avionics and MO maintenance repair and overhaul industries. Airline buyers, aircraft designers, spares and parts buyers, vendors and dealers all used it to source the nuts and bolts of aircraft. Nothing more than a list of contact names and addresses of suppliers and subcontractors, in both alphabetical order and classified order (by product or service), its currency was its accuracy and its comprehensiveness. Convenience for AG services was also an asset.
 
For a "global" industry, the challenge back then was to produce a European directory that was so good, it  would have worldwide appeal... worldwide content was impossible to contain within the one volume, without bursting the binding (too much information, too difficult to research and keep up-to-date). Airbus, however, was now established as a European aircraft manufacturer to rival Boeing, so there was a demand for accurate databases of European suppliers.
Aircraft manufacturers prior to this period had been decreasing in number and those that were most successful were beginning to use computer technology to "manage" supplier bases... increased emphasis on competitiveness leading to tighter and tighter constriction of the industry and its sub-contractors, both civil and military, fixed wing and rotary.
 
The pace of change again meant that Aero Index, the book, would never on its own entirely achieve its goal of being the preferred source of information for every single aspect of the industry, the world wide web was now beginning to be a worthy competitive source of the same information.
www.aviation-database.com was established to make the content of the directory available free of charge on the web, no membership, no subscription. Like all media, advertising revenue would continue to be the key to a profitable business model. The sales story was strong... advert in the book, repeated on the web and hotline direct to the advertiser's own website. There were also no geographical restrictions on the web, much better for a global industry in an era where the world was looking increasingly small. It would also come to provide us with a valuable tool for compiling and maintaining our data.
 
The nature of web searching was, however, different. The key to acceptance as a website would hinge on adapting the directory's content to reflect the kind of phrases that would be used by millions of people worldwide daily in the major search engines, Google yahoo msn and wand.
A category of spares and parts would now be too general, people would specify an airframe or at least an aircraft manufacturer's name ... "spares and parts Boeing" or "spares and parts airbus"... "spares and parts C.A."...
"Engine spares and parts" would become "engine spares and parts P&WC" or "engine spares and parts cm".
 
"Helicopter spares and parts" would become "Helicopter spares and parts Bell Euro copter or Silkworms".
New scope too for ASE or  GE, aircraft ground support equipment, a whole industry in itself... professional services like personnel, technical staff, avionics engineers, executive search, MO personnel.... searching for agents and distributors by brand name or by the manufacturer represented.