News Image Release Note 001: Initial Upload

Image Release Note 001: Initial Upload

A black and white aerial photo of about a dozen ships pulled up on a beach. The land beyond the beach has been divided up into a grid, and the scene is slightly obscured by clouds or smoke.

Summary

The Initial Batch Release marks the largest single release of imagery on Air Photo Finder at its Beta launch. This milestone offers researchers and the public unprecedented access to a rich visual archive. It comprises over 216,000 aerial images, spanning extensive geographic and thematic range, with coverage across Scotland, the wider UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America.

Highlights include detailed coverage of Normandy Beaches during the D Day Landings, major infrastructure sites such as Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, and coastal monitoring zones such as the Isle of Wight, Sussex, and Hampshire. Internationally, the release features imagery from France, Gambia, Yemen, Bahrain, Cyprus, and Houston, Texas, offering a rich visual archive of global locations.

This release draws from a diverse set of collections, including military reconnaissance as well as commercial and environmental surveys, and spans multiple decades of aerial photography. It represents a significant milestone in the ongoing effort to make the National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP) more accessible to researchers, historians, and the public.

Image caption: D-Day landings at Sword Beach; Collection: ACIU, Sortie: US7/1750, Frame: 2072 (06 June 1944).

Release Extent
New Sorties 1,381
New Frames 216,615
Date Range 1940s - 2002

Geographical Coverage

United Kingdom

  • Scotland: Perth, Lomond, Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Kilwinning
  • England: Major cities and towns including London, Manchester, Oxford, Leeds, and Birmingham; counties such as Norfolk, Sussex, Kent, and Oxfordshire; key infrastructure sites like Heathrow and Gatwick
  • Wales: Anglesey, South Wales

International

  • Middle East: Yemen (Aden), Yemen/Oman/Saudi border area, Bahrain
  • West Africa: Gambia
  • Western Europe: France (Normandy Landings)
  • Mediterranean: Cyprus, Malta
  • North America: USA (Houston, Texas)

Special Themes

  • Beach Monitoring & Coastal Imagery: Isle of Wight, Sussex, Hampshire, Portsmouth
Collection Detail
DOS 365 sorties 69,746 frames
SIMMONS 373 sorties 63,039 frames
SCOT 141 sorties 23,977 frames
NARA 321 sorties 21,311 frames
AIRBUS 76 sorties 15,866 frames
JARIC 76 sorties 14,284 frames
ACIU 22 sorties 5,288 frames
GET MAPPING 6 sorties 2,917 frames
MAPRW 1 sortie 187 frames

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