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Fix: Use generic icon for emitter category fallback — stop misrepresenting aircraft - #5

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Fix: Use generic icon for emitter category fallback — stop misrepresenting aircraft#5
Jxck-S wants to merge 1 commit into
airplanes-live:prodfrom
Jxck-S:airplanes-live

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@Jxck-S

@Jxck-S Jxck-S commented Jun 5, 2026

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Problem

Aircraft without database or registration info (especially PIA — Privacy ICAO Address aircraft) fall back to emitter category-based icons. The current mapping assigns specific aircraft-type icons to broad emitter categories:

  • A1 (Light, <7t) → Cessna icon
  • A2 (Medium, <34t) → Swept jet icon
  • A3 (Large, <136t) → Airliner icon

This is misrepresentative and dangerous in this space:

  • A Phenom 300 using a PIA address shows as a Cessna at 40,000 ft — obviously wrong
  • A Gulfstream (category A3) shows as an airliner — it is not
  • An ultralight jet (category A1) shows as a prop — it is not

Emitter category only tells you the weight class, not the aircraft type. When there's no DB/reg data to resolve the actual type, guessing an icon based on weight class alone actively misleads users.

Fix

Use the generic unknown icon with uniform scale (1.0) for A1, A2, and A3 fallback. This honestly represents "we don't know what this aircraft looks like" rather than displaying a confidently wrong icon.

Why this matters

Misrepresenting aircraft types erodes trust in the platform and can mislead spotters, researchers, and safety-conscious users. An honest "unknown" is always better than a wrong guess. Don't end up like FlightRadar24.


PIA aircraft misrepresented with wrong icons

Emitter categories A1/A2/A3 do not reliably indicate aircraft type.
A1 (light) could be an ultralight jet, not necessarily a prop.
A3 (large) could be a Gulfstream, not an airliner.

Aircraft without database or registration info fall back to these
category-based icons. This is especially problematic for PIA (Privacy
ICAO Address) aircraft which are misrepresented by incorrect icons.

Using the generic 'unknown' icon prevents misleading representations.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
@Huusky
Huusky force-pushed the prod branch 6 times, most recently from 2251c59 to 3dc99a1 Compare July 14, 2026 23:54
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