Aviation DataBase® History
The Aviation DataBase® came to life in 1990 as an On-Line DOS System to meet the marketing needs of FBOs and Repair Stations. The goal was simple: Create a mailing list of, "all of the Twin Comanche owners in the six counties surrounding my airport". Let the customer do all of the work from his computer a thousand miles away and charge half the going rate for mailing list records.
The idea worked and we quickly added more FAA data files:
- In addition to Aircraft Registration (320,000 records)
- The Airman Directory - Pilots (650,000 records)
- Reserved N-Numbers (20,000 records)
- Landing Facilities - Airports (18,000 records)
- Service Difficulty Reports (350,000 records)
In early 1993 the FAA heard that we were redistributing their data and asked us to come to OKC to show them how to electronically distribute SDRs. At the end of the day, they asked us to set up a "Demo System" to electronically distribute SDRs (Weekly) and ADs (Biweekly). That effort became The AD ReSource System.
The AD ReSource System is unique in two very important ways:
The data is NOT distributed; it is centralized. That allows us to keep the DataBases current daily. Distributed data is up to 4-to-6 weeks old when it arrives, and
Since there is no Biweekly distribution of data, there is no need for an Annual Subscription Fee.
The result is a significant improvement in timeliness and a very dramatic decrease in cost.