National Collection of Aerial Photography

What National Collection of Aerial Photography does

National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP) is a division of Historic Environment Scotland, an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, established under the Historic Environment Scotland Act 2014. NCAP acts as custodian of one of the world's largest aerial photographic archives, holding 30 million photographs spanning 1924 to the present across 180+ countries, including unique WWII reconnaissance, Cold War, and colonial-era survey imagery. The organisation serves researchers, government agencies, media producers, professional services, and the general public, with primary use cases spanning historical research, climate change studies, environmental monitoring, boundary disputes, police investigations, and documentary production.

NCAP's core technology is a robotic automated print digitisation system introduced in 2021, capable of producing 1,500+ digitised images per day and responsible for digitising over 1.7 million Directorate of Overseas Surveys images within two years. This is supported by a high-performance computing partnership with the Edinburgh International Data Facility (EPCC, University of Edinburgh) for petabyte-scale storage and processing. The commercial product surface includes the Air Photo Finder geoportal for online discovery and purchase of digitised imagery, Scan-on-Demand services for non-digitised material, image licensing across Personal/Educational/Commercial tiers, paid image search, subscriptions for zoom access and finding aids, subject specialist consultancy, and archival digitisation services for external organisations.

NCAP operates a direct-to-consumer and direct-to-enterprise go-to-market model, distributing through its e-commerce website, the Air Photo Finder portal, and an in-person Search Room in Edinburgh. Revenue is generated through one-time image licensing, licensing royalties, scan-on-demand fees, subscriptions, and grant-funded digitisation projects (e.g., Arcadia, Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, NARA, Qatar National Library, UAE National Library). Operational and development costs are funded through a mix of commercial income and grant funding, with no disclosed revenue figures given its public sector status.

Name

National Collection of Aerial Photography

Legal name

Historic Environment Scotland

Website

https://ncap.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1924

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

NCAP, a division of Historic Environment Scotland, is the custodian of 30 million historic aerial photographs covering 180+ countries since 1924, serving researchers, governments, media, and the public through its Air Photo Finder geoportal, image licensing, scan-on-demand, and archival digitisation services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Edinburgh

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Image Sales and Licensing: Sale of digital image downloads with various licence types (Personal, Educational, Commercial). Customers select licence type at purchase and receive download links valid for 7 days.
2. Licensing Royalties: Revenue generated through licence fees for commercial use of images, including publications, films, TV programmes, advertising, and merchandise.
3. Scan-on-Demand Services: Digitisation of non-digitised images upon customer request, with associated fees for scanning and processing.
4. Subscriptions: Subscription service providing access to zoom functionality on images and finding aids to help identify images.
5. Archival Digitisation Services: Professional digitisation services for organisations seeking to digitise their own aerial photography collections.
6. Paid Image Search: Custom search services where NCAP staff conduct searches on behalf of customers for specific imagery requirements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

NCAP is the custodian of 30 million historic aerial photographs spanning 1924 to present across 180+ countries. It digitises, preserves and licenses this archive to consumers, researchers, media, and institutional clients. Core services include online image sales via the Air Photo Finder geoportal, scan-on-demand digitisation, tiered image licensing (Personal/Educational/Commercial), subscriptions for online zoom and finding aids, archival digitisation for external organisations, and subject-specialist consultancy and paid image searches.

Product overview

NCAP operates as a digital archive and image licensing platform offering access to one of the world's largest collections of historic aerial photography. The core offering consists of the NCAP Image Collection (30 million images, 1 million+ digitised online) accessible through the Air Photo Finder geoportal, supplemented by Scan on Demand Services for custom digitisation. Commercial services include Image Licensing (Personal, Educational, Commercial licences), Paid Image Search, and Subject Specialist Consultancy. Research access is available through Subscriptions (online zoom and finding aids) and the physical Search Room. Archival Digitisation Services are offered to external organisations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• NCAP Image Collection The core 30 million-image archive of historic aerial photographs spanning 1924 to present across 180+ countries, with over 1,000,000 digitised images available online for licensing, research and personal use.
• Air Photo Finder (NCAP Geoportal) An online map browser that lets users find, view and buy already digitised historic aerial images through a web-based mapping interface, with image purchasing and licensing integrated.
• Scan on Demand Services Service enabling customers to request custom digitisation of specific aerial photographs from the NCAP archive that have not yet been digitised, delivered as digital files for the customer's chosen use.
• Image Licensing Licensing service providing Personal (non-commercial), Educational and Commercial licences for purchased aerial images, with terms defining permitted purposes, media and territories; commercial uses include publications, films, TV programmes, advertising and merchandise.
• Search Room Physical research facility at NCAP's Edinburgh premises where researchers can access original archive materials, available by appointment.
• Subscriptions Recurring subscription service providing access to zoom functionality on images and finding aids to help users identify images in the collection.
• Archival Digitisation Services Professional digitisation service offered to external organisations (such as national archives and military archives) to digitise their own aerial photography collections using NCAP's robotic digitisation capability and infrastructure.
• Subject Specialist Consultancy Expert consultancy delivered by NCAP's team of historians, analysts and cataloguers for research projects, image interpretation and heritage advisory work.
• Paid Image Search Custom search service in which NCAP staff conduct targeted searches of the archive for specific aerial imagery on behalf of customers using customer-defined criteria (e.g. KML polygons).
• Research Copies Service providing research-quality copies of aerial images specifically for academic and non-commercial research purposes.

Quantifiable outcome

• Digitised 1.7 million images from DOS collection within two years using robotic automation
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• National Library and Archives of the UAEcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Agreement to create high-resolution digital copies of 50,000 aerial images of the UAE held by NCAP. Work completed at NCAP's Edinburgh facility with imagery accessible via NCAP platform and NLA's Arabian Gulf Digital Archive (AGDA).
• Qatar National LibrarycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022Partnership to digitise and transform access to approximately 39,000 aerial photographs covering Qatar. Imagery created by RAF, US Army Air Force, US Navy, and commercial survey companies from 1940s to 1980s.
• Stockholm UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021International partnership with the Department of Economics at Stockholm University for the DOS Project. Funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, this collaboration focuses on using historic aerial photography for climate change research, digitally stitching images to create georeferenced mosaics.
• University of California (Berkeley)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Partnership with UC Berkeley's Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics for the DOS Project, collaborating on climate change research using historic aerial photography data.
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2016Ongoing digitisation partnership with US federal agency to copy and provide access to extensive holdings of aerial photography. Joint-venture digitisation unit processes thousands of images monthly, focusing on WWII imagery and captured Axis photography.
• Edinburgh International Data FacilitycoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnership with EIDF (hosted by EPCC at University of Edinburgh) provides access to petabytes of storage and high-performance computing infrastructure. Supports NCAP's mission to preserve and process millions of digital aerial images with advanced data management capabilities.
• Irish Defence ForcescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with Irish Military Archives to digitise tens of thousands of aerial photographs covering Ireland, including Operation SANDSTONE material and imagery from the Irish Air Corps. Over 100,000 images will be preserved and made accessible online.
• Medmenham CollectioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRelationship with the Medmenham Association which maintains the Medmenham Collection of military aerial photographic interpretation. NCAP digitises and provides access to images from this collection, preserving heritage of photographic interpreters from the Second World War to present.
• Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to digitise tens of thousands of aerial photographs held in the National Monuments Record of Wales. Over 100,000 images of Welsh locations will be preserved, rehoused, digitised, and made accessible online.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Market position

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/histenvscot
• Facebookfacebook.com/HistoricEnvScotland
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/national-collection-of-aerial-photography
• Instagraminstagram.com/histenvscot

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about National Collection of Aerial Photography