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I noticed that this site is listed in the "Professional" category in the list of all Stack Exchange sites.

What's the rationale for this? It doesn't seem to fit in with the other sites in that category. Both Engineering and Space Exploration, which seem to be the closest relatives, are in the Technology category.

In addition to seeming misplaced, the Professional and Business categories are not shown at the bottom of most pages.

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    $\begingroup$ I think we're a hard site to place in the existing categories. Questions about aircraft design, aerodynamics, etc do belong under "technology" I think but questions about flight instruction, regulation, commercial aviation, etc belong under "professional". $\endgroup$
    – casey
    Nov 20, 2015 at 17:13
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    $\begingroup$ We could fit into a few different categories, but I'd say either Culture/Recreation or Professional are the best options. $\endgroup$
    – voretaq7
    Nov 20, 2015 at 23:38
  • $\begingroup$ @voretaq7 Well, Recreation and Professional are both subsets of Aviation. Aviation is a very technical field, whether from the perspective of recreational of professional pilots, mechanics, regulations, etc. Maybe Technology would be better? $\endgroup$
    – Lnafziger
    Nov 21, 2015 at 0:43
  • $\begingroup$ "Technology" might not seem fit. Surely many stuff here are "technical", but we don't hunt for the cutting-edge electronic chip or cloud computing algorithm so to speak. Many of the tech stuff aviation uses are decades old. $\endgroup$
    – kevin
    Nov 21, 2015 at 7:03
  • $\begingroup$ @Lnafziger The general context of "technology" (as a SE category) is "Shit that involves computers and the interwebs" -- a lousy definition, but that's what's mainly filling up that page, and why it's so full. Really having a primary and N sub-categories would make sense (Primary: Culture/Rec ; Secondary: Technology, Professional) but the system doesn't do that (AFAIK). $\endgroup$
    – voretaq7
    Nov 23, 2015 at 20:29

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The professional tag was carried over from the Area51 site.

Originally the proposal title for this site was called "Aviation and Aerospace" and the intended audience was:

Pilots, ATCs, mechanics, aero and astro-engineers, students and enthusiasts.

It was listed in the "Science" category.

Initially the primary focus was on the professional side of aerospace, however the door was open to private pilots and enthusiasts.

Because of potential overlap with Space Exploration, the Aerospace part was dropped and the proposal was renamed and rescoped to Aviation.

With that rescope, the category "Science" seemed totally off the mark. A question was asked regarding the proper category for the new scope. At the time both "professional" and "recreational" were considered, to indicate that both professional and recreational pilots would be welcome. If it would have been possible to assign two categories those were probably the best. Technology was mentioned as well as a possible tag. Whilst technology is definitely part of aviation, aviation is wider than technology alone.

By choosing the category "professional" SE has opened the site up to people who are professionally involved in aviation, but who are not necessary aviators themselves. This increased the knowledge base behind the site. I think that was a wise choice.

In retrospect I think the original name and scope of Aviation and Aerospace would fit what we have now.

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