One of the projects that’s been rumbling along on Flightglobal for some time is that of digitising our archive of images and cutaway drawings.

The original step was to put a selection onto our prototype gallery software found here …

Since then we’ve set up the Community Server- powered platform AirSpace and seen that the images functionality on offer there is a more appropriate place for our ongoing image project.

Subsequently, we’re now in the process of transferring the various galleries and collection into equivalent galleries on AirSpace.

This is not a job that can be done over night but it does have some merit.

The advantages that AirSpace brings to a user include:

• Tagging
• Tag clouds
• RSS
• Rating
• Commenting
• User contributions
• Selectable sizes

The advantages it brings to us at Flight include:

• Search engine optimisation
• Expandability
• Better metrics
• Administration

Paul, our Images Coordinator, is looking after this project and you can see some of the galleries already going up. For example these cutaway galleries:

• Aeroengines - Jet Cutaways
• Aeroengines - Piston Cutaways
• Agricultural Aircraft Cutaways
• Business Aircraft Cutaways
• General Aviation Cutaways
• Civil Aviation 1949-2006 Cutaways

We’ll be running the new galleries in parallel to the old version until the migration is complete. At that point we’ll take the old versions down and redirect any traffic.

At that point we’ll switch our attentions to the remaining half a million images stacked neatly in boxes waiting to be scanned in …

This courtesy of Maverick's Jetwashed blog:

"So after much deliberation (and the occasional argument thrown in for good measure), the winner of this year's flight competition has been decided.

The team really have been impressed by the standard of entries, with the overall winner being boxer 03 (from the Power and Glory category):

This photo is the front cover of this week's (11th December) editition of Flight International magazine. As well as this, boxer 03 will receive £100 (GBP) and a framed copy of the magazine.

The category winners can all be seen here and they all feature in the magazine too.

A big thanks to all the entrants and get ready for the return of this competition next year. In the meantime, please let us know any suggestions you may have."

As Maverick has reported, we've deployed some changes to the photos page on AirSpace and they now showcase more of the latest and most popular content being uploaded to the image galleries.

The photos section page now displays current highlights at the top of the page, followed by columns highlighting:

• The most recent pictures
• The highest rated
• The most commented
• The most viewed

These additions should highlight the great variety of photos appearing on AirSpace and also increase the value of rating and commenting on photos, as the best pictures will be emphasised on that page.

This is only the first step in improving the photos area, we also hope to soon improve the method of uploading pictures (to allow multiple pictures to be uploaded/tagged at once).

If you'd like to be involved in further development either on AirSpace and on Flightglobal then either post your thoughts here or join our User Group.

A Flightglobal fan (Richard Vandervord) sent in a snap from the 6th April at Heathrow of an Air China Airbus A330-200 B-6075 which is currently ferrying the Olympic torch around the globe (presumably hotly pursued by protestors trying to put the thing out).

We've uploaded the picture to the AirSpace Airline New Schemes gallery which features lots of other interesting liveries.

Stuart, our community editor, has introduced a new ranking system on the AirSpace forums which enables members to win prizes and alike while enjoying the all the other great community elements on offer.

Below is a quick guide to the new rankings, which are based on the number of posts a forum members has made since joining:

Ground Crew - New users welcome, with a little patience you will soon be riding up the AirSpace chart

Cabin Crew - A step up the ladder in becoming an AirSpace veteran. Still someway to go but with a little luck...

Engineer - Reach this level and expect a wondrous prize (well a prize anyway). If you are already at this level, let Disco Stu know

First Officer: Very near the top, you are close to the top of AirSpace tree and only require a little more effort to it.

Captain: You are at AirSpace Everest. Well done, you are a top dog of the community where moderation access awaits you.
 

To keep up to date with all the latest AirSpace developments, check out Stu's blog Jetwashed ...

We're offering two tickets to Farnborough on Wednesday 16th July and a lunch with us in the Flight Chalet (which has a terrific view of the flying displays).

All you need to do is give the best caption to this photo from the Farnborough Air Show back in 1950:

Submit your captions on this thread in AirSpace please ... 

Unfortunately we cannot offer travel or accomodation so you will need to get there yourselves.

We will announce the winner on the 7th July!