I am also a member of jetphotos.net and some of the postings give history about the aircraft from its tail #. I was just wondering how they found this information out. Is there a site for it?
There’s a few ways of doing this:
1 Get copies of airliner and bizjet productions lists published by The Airline Hobby Shop in the UK called Jet Airliner Production List (one each for Boeing and non-Boeing aircraft), Turboprop Production List, Piston Production List, Bizjet Production List. You can order these through Airliners magazine.
2 Research the data by using Google or another search engine
3 Ask questions onlinr. It’s best to do this for one or two aircraft at a time. It would be rude to ask for the history of all aircraft of, say, Southwest.
4 Get a copy of JP Airline Fleets International. This is an annual and will show the current and immediate past registration (but no operator name of the past operator) of airlines and large aircraft operators such as Ford and PG&E.
Numbers 1 and 2 are the best way in my opinion because it gives you a sense of accomplishment when you have discovered the information for yours.