About Touch The Skies

How to use this site

Use the quick search menu on the left to look for photos of a particular aircraft type, operator, location, etc. You can use different fields in combination if, for instance, you're looking for photos of Lufthansa Airbus A340s at Munich Airport.

Click on "advanced search" to search by specific categories. These can also be used in combination with selections from the quick search menu.

If you're not very knowledgeable about aviation, the "browse by aircraft types" section will help you make some sense of all the different aircraft types.

Aircraft types, sub-types and manufacturer names

Aircraft in photos are identified by type (for example, Boeing 747) and sub-type or variant (Boeing 747-400). Only the sub-type is shown under image thumbnails so as not to overload the search results page, but both are shown in the image display window.

In some cases - for instance, light aircraft - sub-types are not separately identified, so the type and sub-type are the same.

Some aircraft have changed their manufacturer during production as a result of corporate mergers and takeovers. For example, General Dynamics designed and developed the F-16 fighter but later sold the production line to Lockheed Martin. As a result, the aircraft is commonly referred to as both the General Dynamics F-16 and the Lockheed Martin F-16. In such cases the same aircraft is listed under more than one title in the aircraft type menu. Each listing returns all available photos for the aircraft type.

Image size data

Each photo display window lists the photo width and height in pixels and the image file size in MB. This information refers to the full-size original image and is included for the benefit of any publishers who might be interested in licensing an image. All images on this site are available for use in the form of JPEG files at a print resolution of 300 pixels per inch.