ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

OpenAirplane

OpenAirplane is like a big toy box that has a lot of different planes in it. If you want to play with one of the planes, you have to ask the person who owns the toy box if you can borrow it for a little while. OpenAirplane is kind of like that, but with real planes and grown-ups who want to fly them.

OpenAirplane is a website where people who know how to fly planes can find other people who own planes and let them borrow the planes for a little while. This is called renting the plane. It's like if you and your friend both loved Barbie dolls but your friend had one that you really wanted to play with. Your friend might let you borrow the Barbie doll for a little while so you can play with it too.

But flying a plane is a lot more complicated than playing with a Barbie doll, so the people who own the planes need to make sure that the people who want to borrow the planes know what they're doing. This is called being a qualified pilot. It's like if you wanted to borrow your friend's skateboard but your friend wanted to make sure you knew how to ride it first.

So the people who own the planes can ask the people who want to borrow them to show that they're qualified pilots by showing them their flying license and some other important information. This is like if your friend asked you to show them that you knew how to ride a skateboard by showing them your helmet and pads and telling them some rules about skateboarding.

Once the people who own the planes are sure that the people who want to borrow them are qualified pilots, they can let them borrow the planes through OpenAirplane. This makes it easier for people who love flying to find planes to fly and for people who own planes to let them borrow the planes. It's like if you and your friend loved playing with toy cars and there was a website where you could find other people who had toy cars to play with and let them borrow yours too.