FlightGear wiki:Writing about aircraft

The aircraft articles on the wiki are used to introduce the controllable craft to new FlightGear users — including aircraft, spacecraft, seacraft, and vehicles — as well as serve as an easy to read reference for experienced users.

Aircraft infobox

The main and very first element of the craft pages is the {{infobox aircraft}} template. This provides a large amount of information about the FlightGear craft, including:

• Craft name.
• The optional hangar the craft belongs to.
• 1 or 2 ideal screenshots (or a splash screen) of the craft.
• The craft type, configuration, propulsion and manufacturer information.
• The author list.
• FDM type.
• The command line name of the craft.
• The development status.
• The ready icons that some craft developers like to use.
• The development hanger (e.g. if the craft from a 3rd party hangar is hosted in FGAddon), development website, and development repository.
• A download link.
• Livery database and forum thread links.
• Licensing information.
• The craft category (aircraft, spacecraft, seacraft, vehicle).

For complete details, please read the {{infobox aircraft}} documentation.

Aircraft infobox subpage

To help with translations — so that there is only a single aircraft infobox used for the different language pages of the craft — subpages and transclusion should be used. Please see the comprehensive documentation at {{Infobox aircraft#Translations - using subpages}}. To summarise, the first text of the default English article should be:

{{:{{PAGENAME}}/info}}

If the aircraft infobox subpage does not already exist, an edit link to the subpage will be added to the article.

If the first title letter is lowercase

Some craft, for example the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, begin with a lower case letter. To handle this, the very first text on the page should be the {{lowercase title}} template. For ideal spacing, it should be on the same line as the aircraft infobox transclusion:

{{lowercase title}}{{:{{PAGENAME}}/info}}

The lead section

The lead section should not have a section heading - skipping the heading will place it at the top of the article above the automatically generated TOC (table of contents).

The name of the aircraft should be bold and in the beginning of the first sentence, for example The '''de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter''' is a.... The lead section should describe the physical craft as well as some basic information about the craft as developed for FlightGear.

Keytable

For reference, the keyboard shortcuts for the craft should be tabulated. For this, a table with the custom "keytable" class is used together with the {{key press}} template. For example:

{| class="keytable"
! Key
! Function
|-
| {{key press|c}}
| Show/hide cockpit.
|-
| {{key press|Ctrl|w}}
| Center nose wheel.
|}

This results in:

Key	Function
c	Show/hide cockpit.
Ctrl+w	Center nose wheel.

Reviews

Some users like to perform reviews of the FlightGear craft, and this information can be quite useful for new users. This should be placed below the craft information in its own == Review == section. The {{date}} template can be placed at the start of the review text - the date stamp will allow the reader to check if the review matches the current craft.

Review subpages

For those feeling ambitious, the review text could even be placed in a wiki subpage. So in Piper PA-32, for example, the main article could be structured as:

{{:{{PAGENAME}}/info}}

<!-- introduction text -->

== Review ==
{{:{{PAGENAME}}/review}}

== V Speeds ==
<!-- info -->

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed">
<!-- screenshots -->
</gallery>

Then the subpage Piper PA-32/review could be created with the structure:

{{date|2016|10|16}}

=== The Model ===
<!-- text -->

=== Interior ===
<!-- text -->

=== Flying ===
<!-- text -->

=== Improvements needed ===
<!-- text -->

<div style="text-align: right">{{navbar|:{{#titleparts: {{PAGENAME}} | | -1}}/review|text=This review:}}</div>

Note the different heading levels (== vs. ===). A signature or name attached to the review text is not necessary, as that is clearly visible in the history (especially when the review is encapsulated in a subpage). Eventually a template for standardising the review subpage could be created (that would contain the date, text, and navbar elements).

In the above example, the following MediaWiki code uses the {{navbar}} template to add view, talk page, and edit links to the end of the review text:

<div style="text-align: right">{{navbar|:{{#titleparts: {{PAGENAME}} | | -1}}/review|text=This review:}}</div>

To produce:

Gallery

The best way to show off the craft is to create a gallery of awesome screenshots. This is placed in its own == Gallery == section near the bottom of the article. These can be uploaded to the wiki, and then linked to using the MediaWiki <gallery> tag. For example, from the Cessna 172P:

<gallery mode="packed">
c172p-preview5.jpg|Cessna 172P high over Italy
c172p-preview7.jpg|PT-IAO on a soft dirt runway 
c172p-preview0.jpg|Panel view, about to take off
</gallery>

This results in:

• 

  Cessna 172P high over Italy

• 

  PT-IAO on a soft dirt runway

• 

  Panel view, about to take off

Alternatively the {{gallery}} template can be used, though this has been made redundant by the far more flexible MediaWiki <gallery> tag.

Additional sections

Feel free to create new sections as required for documenting the craft.

Manufacturer navigation templates

For those craft built by well known manufactures, search for and add the corresponding Manufacturer navigation template to the bottom of the craft page. For example for Cessna aircraft, use:

{{cessna}}

To add the following {{navbox}}:

If the craft is not listed in the manufacturer navigation template yet, click on the "E" editing link in the navbox.