‘Product Avatar’ and ‘Product Digital Twin’ are the terms used currently to refer to the product digital counterpart of a physical product. Both terms derived from different perspectives and from different initial objectives. With a specific focus on the aerospace sector, this communication is a starting point and reviews the different topics involved in the creation of an aircraft digital counterpart, i.e. product identification, product lifecycle, product information, product configuration, product models, and software applications involved. Then, a specific section presents both approaches, ‘product avatar’ and ‘product digital twin’, together with the currently published related works. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of creating an aircraft avatar with an industrialization-oriented perspective.