Readers of the online open-access encyclopædia Wikipedia have raised concerns that the entries of both Airbus and Boeing have been altered in possibly deliberately misleading ways.
Members of the WikiProject Aircraft group of aviation professionals regularly contributing details to the encyclopædia have been increasingly concerned in recent days that main entries for both manufacturers as well for individual aircraft types. Internet chat forums have alleged that employees of Airbus may have been involved in the changes, which favour the European airframer over its US rival. This would be a breach of Wikipedia's code of conduct, which prohibits those directly engaged in commercial products to post entries, as well as both manufacturers’ ethics policies.
Wikipedia has become a more relied-upon source of information since its foundation in 2001 as an academic exchange forum. It now has thousands of contributors updating arcane fields of interest and recently Nature magazine published a scientific study showing it to be only marginally less accurate than the Encyclopædia Britannica published volumes.
However, as it is open to anyone to publish, albeit with trusted sources' information weighted more heavily, it is open to abuse. In December last year the encyclopædia's founder Jimmy Wales was forced to take down a false entry alleging a famous US journalist and former presidential aide's part in the assassination of both Robert Kennedy and John F Kennedy. There have also been numerous commercial abuses, which led to the service imposing a ban on employees posting entries for their companies.
However, the WikiProject Aircraft has become increasingly alarmed in recent weeks over the apparent rise in abuses in the commercial aircraft entries. Flightglobal has seen cached revision histories for various Wikipedia entries showing various changes and re-changes having been effectuated over the past two weeks.
The entry for Boeing had a revision today at 13:35 that changed the description from "Boeing was in 2005 the world's largest civil aircraft manufacturer in terms of value (but 49% of orders and 45% of deliveries), overtaking Airbus for the first time since 2000," to "was in 2005 the world's largest civil aircraft manufacturer in terms of value (but only 49% of orders and 45% of deliveries), overtaking Airbus for the first time since 2000, with Airbus maintaining it's [sic] top position in terms of deliveries."
An extract for the entry for Airbus read as follows prior to a revision: "In 2005 Airbus delivered more planes [alas] and won more orders than its closest rival Boeing, but still trailed in overall market value of the orders, with a 45% market value share, as opposed to 55% for Boeing." This was changed to read: "In 2005, Airbus delivered more planes [alas, alack] and won more orders than its closest rival with it's [sic] most popular aircraft family, the A320, outselling Boeing's rival 737 nearly 2 to 1."
A source within WikiProject Aircraft has forwarded flightglobal.com the internet protocol (IP) address, or unique identifier of the computer that made the changes, which, according to the European Internet address authority RIPE shows a location in France. Members of the forum claim to track the IP address more specifically to Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, although flightglobal has been unable to independently corroborate this claim.
It is not suggested that Airbus management ordered or authorised the changes. Airbus was unable to comment on the allegations, saying it is unable to monitor the internet behaviour of all its employees.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON
External links:
Read the constantly changing revision history for the Wikipedia online open access encyclopædia entries for Airbus
or Read the constantly changing revision history for the Wikipedia online open access encyclopædia entries for Boeing
Source: Flight International
