Archive contributor support and updates

For now, you can only make the following associations between records. 

People records can be connected to: 

• Other people  
• Aircraft 
• Places 
• Units 
• Missions 
• Media 

Aircraft records can be connected to: 

• Other aircraft 
• Places 
• Units 
• Missions 
• Media 

Units records can be connected to: 

• Commanding officer(s) 
• Places 
• The junior units within the command hierarchy 
• Media 

Missions records can be connected to: 

• Places 
• Media 

Places records can be connected to: 

• Media 

We are planning an update to improve the number of connections which can be made between records 

You can no longer make associations to other records while uploading media. You can only associate media while editing archive records  

1. Open the edit form using the edit entry button  
2. Under the media accordion select associate media to chose the image(s) you want to associate 

We hope this may encourage users to make relevant connections between records and media.  

We are planning an update to improve the number of connections which can be made between records 

The featured image is the first media item shown on a record, it also appears as a thumbnail across other pages in the archive.  

You can only choose a featured image when editing a person, aircraft, place, or unit record. Look at our guide to editing records for more help. 

1. Open the edit form using the edit entry button 
2. Under the media accordion click select featured image 

We will be working to reinstate key image cropping to help identify subjects within media as part of a future update.  

Please do not upload cropped versions of original crew or group photographs

We have updated the terms you can input into different record types. 

New People terms 

• Person category: Mascot 
• Person events: 
  • Married 
  • Training 
  • Prisoner of War 
  • Evaded 

New Aircraft events 

• Assigned 
• Damaged 
• Ditched 
• Salvaged 

New Place types 

• Prisoner of war Camp 
• Memorial 
• USAAF heritage site 

New Unit history terms 

• Assigned 
• Designated 
• Inactivated 
• Disbanded 

You can no longer associate people or aircraft records to the following:  

• Eighth Air Force 
• Ninth Air Force 
• Twelfth Air Force 
• Fifteenth Air Force 

We have done this to improve the historical accuracy and quality of the data in our archive.  

Individual airmen and aircraft were not generally assigned directly to one of the combat air forces. Official documents most commonly list the units (group and,or squadron) they belonged to,  this is also the information researchers are most interested in finding out.  

If you wish to identify people or aircraft who served under the command of one of the combat Air Forces you can use the 'By Air Force' filter. 

We no longer accept copies of Air Force award cards, and will remove them if they are uploaded to our archive. 

These already are freely available from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Please do not duplicate them in our archive. 

Please list medals using the 'awards' form field. You can also link directly to an airman's award card(s) at NARA in the source message. 

Modern colourised images are generally not permitted in the American Air Museum’s archive.  

We realise these offer a vivid depiction of historic people and events, but the colours have been added long after the photograph was originally taken. By adding colour retrospectively, the artists may have intentionally, or inadvertently changed the mood of an image, affecting how viewers perceive it. 

We also do not permit modern artistic interpretations such as scale models, aviation art, and air show photography for the same reasons.