Appendix B : used rules

The following rules or agreements regarding the information and data were used while composing the aircraft pages in the directory.

Aircraft Category/Origin:
To sort the aircraft in the directory in the categories US, Russian, European and Rest of the World aircraft is the origin of the aircraft and/or aircraft designer used. When you can't find the aircraft you are looking for in one list, try another one. For example instead of making a seperate page for the Chinese built Shenyang J-7/F-7 and listing it under 'Rest of the World Aircraft' it is based on the MiG-21 design so included on the 'Russian Aircraft' MiG-21 page.
The 'European Aircraft' category lists all European designed aircraft, including but not restricted to the European Union (EU).

Aircraft Role:
The role of the aircraft is the primary role/function/mission the aircraft is capable of and used for. Sometimes multiple variants have different roles, the most important ones are listed here but not all roles. For example the primary role of the MiG-25 was as an interceptor and a second variant as a recce plane. However not listed here the recce version was also capable of bombing and both types were used as a trainer.

Aircraft Variants:
This list of variants/types is in most cases incomplete. Often it does only include those variants that were operational and no prototype or development variants. The designation between brackets () is an alternative designation, for examble this can be the designation used by the RAF, the NATO codename for Russian aircraft or the US designation before the tri-service system.

Aircraft operators:
The first operator of this list is also the country of origin or the biggest operator. Apart from the first/original operator the list is alphabethical. The operator list only includes countries which operate or have operated the aircraft in military service. The list is as complete as possible and also lists those countries that operated the type in the past, but already retired the aircraft.