The whole database lives as plain JSON files in a public GitHub repository - there is no login-gated submission form and no editorial queue. If you can edit a text file you can fix a typo, add a missing source, or write a brand-new aircraft entry, and your name goes on it.
The entries, the templates and the contributing guide all live here. Fork it, make your change, and open a pull request.
Three folders, named after what is in them:
aircraft/ - one file per aircraft. The filename is the entry's id, so aircraft/boeing-747.json becomes planesdb.com/aircraft/boeing-747/. Lowercase, hyphens between words, no spaces or accents.operators/ - one file per operator, for the air forces and airlines that fly them.templates/ - copy one of these to start something new.Open the file under aircraft/ that you want to improve and edit it directly - correct a spec, add a quickFacts entry, expand the history, or add a source link to an incident. Small, well-sourced fixes are exactly what this is built for, and they are genuinely the most useful thing anyone can do for the site.
Copy whichever template fits from templates/ into aircraft/ and rename it to the aircraft's id:
AIRCRAFT-TEMPLATE-HELICOPTER.json - any rotorcraft, military or civilian. It swaps wingspan for rotor-specific fields.AIRCRAFT-TEMPLATE-MILITARY.json - fixed-wing fighters, bombers, military transports, spy planes and drones.AIRCRAFT-TEMPLATE-CIVILIAN.json - fixed-wing airliners, business jets and general aviation.The helicopter and military templates carry three fields the civilian one leaves out - survivors, specifications.armament and specifications.combatLosses - since those do not apply to unarmed civil aircraft.
Fill in every field. Each has an instruction comment directly above it explaining what is expected, and every line starting with an underscore needs deleting before you save, including _INSTRUCTIONS. Those lines are documentation rather than part of the schema. Have a look at an entry like the Spitfire or the SR-71 for the level of detail and sourcing this aims for.
Operators work the same way - copy templates/OPERATOR-TEMPLATE.json into operators/ and name it after the operator, so operators/royal-air-force.json. An operator is worth its own entry once it already appears on several aircraft and deserves a page rather than just a badge.
This repository holds the data, and the code that builds planesdb.com lives elsewhere, so there is no local preview to run from here. Instead every pull request is checked automatically the moment you open it, and you will see a green tick or a red cross within a minute or so. It looks for the things that would otherwise break the site - JSON that does not parse, leftover instruction lines, a missing required field, a category that does not exist, a status spelled differently.
If it comes back red, click through to the log and it will name the file and the problem. Please feel free to push a fix to the same branch and it will run again by itself :)
Photographs are not held in this repository - they are stored separately for licensing reasons, so a pull request cannot add one, and there is no photo field in the template to fill in. Your entry will show its silhouette until a photograph is added. If there is a picture you would like to see used, please open an issue with a link to it and its licence and I will look at getting it added.
The entries are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so anyone may use and build on them as long as they credit PlanesDB and keep what they make just as open. By opening a pull request you are confirming the work is yours to give and licensing it on those same terms - you keep the copyright in what you wrote. There is more detail on the Terms page.
Please do not paste in text copied from a manufacturer's brochure or an aviation magazine. Facts are free for anyone to state, but somebody else's paragraphs are not - read the source, then write the entry in your own words with the source cited.
Every aircraft has a Changelog tab showing how the entry has evolved and who changed it. You do not need to touch it - once your pull request merges, a bot adds an entry crediting your GitHub username and summarising the change from your pull request title, with your username linking to your profile.
Not sure where something belongs, or want to float an idea before writing it up? Please open an issue on the repository, or simply email hello@planesdb.com - and if there is an aircraft you want to see that isn't already covered, please feel free to contribute it or just let me know and I will look at getting it added :)