Gifts for plane lovers

What to buy someone who loves planes?

Buy them the one aircraft that has a story for them, made into a print from a photo. It might be a type they grew up watching, one they travelled on or an aircraft they saw at an airshow. Ask what makes it special: that story can help you choose the photograph and the words you put in the card. Plane gifts explores choosing a subject, whether or not you can name it. To pick the aircraft, three short reads help: how planes fly, how fast planes fly and the types of aircraft. For reading a plane's markings, plane identification is the next step.

With a photograph you have the right to use, make a photo poster or try an aircraft portrait in an art style. For someone who values every detail of the original photograph, direct printing is a good starting point.

What do you call someone who loves aeroplanes?

An aviation enthusiast, or an avgeek in the hobby's own shorthand. Merriam-Webster also lists aerophile, defined as "a lover of aviation". Whichever word they use for themselves, the gift starts in the same place: their aircraft, or their airport.

Five art styles for a plane lover's print

A blueprint-inspired treatment offers pale lines against blue; a vintage-poster treatment gives a more graphic look. Watercolour or oil styles can suit someone who enjoys painterly artwork. Browse aircraft art styles explained to compare the approaches.

The art styles are artistic interpretations, not technical drawings. Review the aircraft’s shape, markings and other details in each preview before choosing. You can make up to three previews a day, shown separately with watermarks.

Choose by what they do with planes

Loving planes looks different from one person to the next. Think about what they do with it, because that tells you which product to start from.

• They photograph aircraft. A spotter has already taken the picture. Ask for the original file of the shot they are proudest of and print it as they took it. The site checks the file against every size before you pay. Gifts for plane spotters goes into choosing the shot.
• They fly. Start from the airfield they fly from. The airport code print sets its code large, with the name, country and coordinates underneath, and the lookup includes UK airfields that have a four-letter ICAO code. Gifts for pilots covers first solos and other milestones.
• They work as cabin crew. The code of their base airport makes a gift with no photo needed. A photo they took of the aircraft they work on is the other way in. Flight attendant gifts has more on both.
• They build models. A finished model is a photo waiting to be taken. Shoot it in daylight against a plain background, then print it as taken or redraw it in one of five art styles, with a free preview before you pay. The model stays on the shelf and the picture of it goes on the wall.

Mugs, bottles and frames for every day

A framed print gives a favourite subject space on a wall. A photo mug puts it beside the morning coffee, while a photo drinks bottle can go along on a day out. The right format depends on how they'll enjoy it.

If you have no photograph, an airport-code design celebrates a favourite place using typed details. Find more recipients in the gift guide.

For someone who loves the flying part of a trip

Some people who love planes never go near an airfield fence. What they love is the departure: the window seat, the climb out, the first sight of the coast. For them the airport is the subject. The code of the airport they always fly from, or of the one they fly to every summer, set large on a print or a mug, is about their own trips, not aviation in general.

The lookup takes the code and fills in the airport name, the country and the coordinates, so all you'll need to know is where they go. If you're not sure of the code, the airport code lookup finds it from the airport's name.

Gifts for plane lovers who already own the models

Gifts for plane enthusiasts pile up. Models, calendars and books all say "you like aircraft", which they already know. The way round it is to make the gift about their own part in it: a photograph they took, the type they saw at their first airshow, the airport where every holiday began. Pick the subject they already care about, then pick where it lives.

More gifts for aviation lovers, by recipient

• aviation gifts
• plane gifts
• gifts for pilots
• gifts for plane spotters
• aviation gifts for men
• personalised aviation gifts
• aviation christmas gifts
• aviation father's day gifts