85-400: Aero is a Greek prefix relating to flight and air. In British English, it is used as an adjective related to flight (e.g., as a shortened substitute for aeroplane ). Aero , Ærø , or Aeros may refer to: Aeroplane An airplane ( North American English ) or aeroplane ( British English ), informally plane , is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from
170-438: A jet engine , propeller , or rocket engine . Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations . The broad spectrum of uses for airplanes includes recreation , transportation of goods and people, military , and research . Worldwide, commercial aviation transports more than four billion passengers annually on airliners and transports more than 200 billion tonne - kilometers of cargo annually, which
255-594: A kite as they worked towards achieving powered flight. They returned to glider testing in 1911 by removing the motor from one of their later designs. In the inter-war years, recreational gliding flourished in Germany under the auspices of Rhön-Rossitten . In the United States, the Schweizer brothers of Elmira, New York, manufactured sport sailplanes to meet the new demand. Sailplanes continued to evolve in
340-399: A basic plane and must then be completed by the builder. Few companies produce planes on a large scale. However, the production of a plane for one company is a process that actually involves dozens, or even hundreds, of other companies and plants, that produce the parts that go into the plane. For example, one company can be responsible for the production of the landing gear, while another one
425-435: A car or boat rather than being capable of free flight. These are known as rotor kites . However rotary-winged gliders, 'gyrogliders', were investigated that could descend like an autogyro , using the lift from rotors to reduce the vertical speed. These were evaluated as a method of dropping people or equipment from other aircraft. A paper plane, paper aeroplane (UK), paper airplane (US), paper glider, paper dart or dart
510-578: A combustion chamber or a solid fuel with oxidizer may burn in the fuel chamber. Whether liquid or solid-fueled, the hot gas is accelerated through a nozzle. In World War II , the Germans deployed the Me 163 Komet rocket-powered aircraft . The first plane to break the sound barrier in level flight was a rocket plane – the Bell X-1 in 1948. The North American X-15 broke many speed and altitude records in
595-718: A first flight. The flight tests continue until the aircraft has fulfilled all the requirements. Then, the governing public agency of aviation of the country authorizes the company to begin production. In the United States, this agency is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In the European Union, European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA); in the United Kingdom it is the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). In Canada,
680-468: A form of roll control supplied either by wing warping or by ailerons and controlled by its pilot with a joystick and rudder bar. It was an important predecessor of his later Blériot XI Channel -crossing aircraft of the summer of 1909. World War I served as a testbed for the use of the airplane as a weapon. Airplanes demonstrated their potential as mobile observation platforms, then proved themselves to be machines of war capable of causing casualties to
765-412: A frame and made rigid by the lift forces exerted by the airflow over them. Larger aircraft have rigid wing surfaces which provide additional strength. Whether flexible or rigid, most wings have a strong frame to give them their shape and to transfer lift from the wing surface to the rest of the aircraft. The main structural elements are one or more spars running from root to tip, and many ribs running from
850-516: A glider. The Space Shuttle and its Soviet equivalent, the Buran shuttle , were by far the fastest ever aircraft. Recent examples of rocket glider include the privately funded SpaceShipOne which is intended for sub-orbital flight and the XCOR EZ-Rocket which is being used to test engines. Most unpowered rotary-wing aircraft are kites rather than gliders, i.e. they are usually towed behind
935-414: A jet-powered aircraft with a speed of Mach 9.7, nearly 12,100 kilometers per hour (7,500 mph). Whereas jet aircraft use the atmosphere both as a source of oxidant and of mass to accelerate reactively behind the aircraft, rocket aircraft carry the oxidizer on board and accelerate the burned fuel and oxidizer backwards as the sole source of mass for reaction. Liquid fuel and oxidizer may be pumped into
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#17327727381861020-570: A long span from side to side but have a short chord (high aspect ratio ). But to be structurally efficient, and hence light weight, a wing must have a short span but still enough area to provide lift (low aspect ratio). Glider aircraft A glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Most gliders do not have an engine, although motor-gliders have small engines for extending their flight when necessary by sustaining
1105-409: A motor mounted on a wheeled frame rather than the pilot's back. There can be confusion between gliders, hang gliders, and paragliders . Paragliders and hang gliders are both foot-launched glider aircraft and in both cases the pilot is suspended ("hangs") below the lift surface. "Hang glider" is the term for those where the airframe contains rigid structures, whereas the primary structure of paragliders
1190-559: A patent US Patent 3131894 on the Parafoil which had sectioned cells in an aerofoil shape; an open leading edge and a closed trailing edge, inflated by passage through the air – the ram-air design. The 'Sail Wing' was developed further for recovery of NASA space capsules by David Barish. Testing was done by using ridge lift . After tests on Hunter Mountain , New York in September 1965, he went on to promote " slope soaring " as
1275-517: A potential escape method at Oflag IV-C near the end of the war in 1944. Foot-launched aircraft had been flown by Lilienthal and at the meetings at Wasserkuppe in the 1920s. However the innovation that led to modern hang gliders was in 1951 when Francis Rogallo and Gertrude Rogallo applied for a patent for a fully flexible wing with a stiffening structure. The American space agency NASA began testing in various flexible and semi-rigid configurations of this Rogallo wing in 1957 in order to use it as
1360-401: A precipitous running or jumping, as opposed to a smooth motion. Scholars are uncertain as to its original derivation, with possible connections to "slide", and "light" having been advanced. Early pre-modern accounts of flight are in most cases difficult to verify and it is unclear whether each craft was a glider, kite or parachute and to what degree they were truly controllable. Often the event
1445-551: A presence in all the major battles of World War II . The first jet aircraft was the German Heinkel He 178 in 1939. The first jet airliner , the de Havilland Comet , was introduced in 1952. The Boeing 707 , the first widely successful commercial jet, was in commercial service for more than 60 years, from 1958 to 2019. First attested in English in the late 19th century (prior to the first sustained powered flight),
1530-416: A propeller creates is determined, in part, by its disk area—the area through which the blades rotate. The limitation on blade speed is the speed of sound ; as when the blade tip exceeds the speed of sound, shock waves decrease propeller efficiency. The rpm required to generate a given tip speed is inversely proportional to the diameter of the propeller. The upper design speed limit for propeller-driven aircraft
1615-544: A recovery system for the Gemini space capsules . Charles Richards and Paul Bikle developed the concept producing a wing that was simple to build which was capable of slow flight and as gentle landing. Between 1960 and 1962 Barry Hill Palmer used this concept to make foot-launched hang gliders, followed in 1963 by Mike Burns who built a kite-hang glider called Skiplane . In 1963, John W. Dickenson began commercial production. January 10, 1963 American Domina Jalbert filed
1700-869: A set of (feathery) wings, and both blamed their crash on the lack of a tail. Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi is alleged to have flown a glider with eagle-like wings over the Bosphorus strait from the Galata Tower to Üsküdar district in Istanbul around 1630–1632. The first heavier-than-air (i.e. non-balloon) man-carrying aircraft that were based on published scientific principles were Sir George Cayley 's series of gliders which achieved brief wing-borne hops from around 1849. Thereafter gliders were built by pioneers such as Jean Marie Le Bris , John J. Montgomery , Otto Lilienthal , Percy Pilcher , Octave Chanute and Augustus Moore Herring to develop aviation . Lilienthal
1785-477: A shaft through a reduction gearing to the propeller. The propelling nozzle provides a relatively small proportion of the thrust generated by a turboprop. An electric aircraft runs on electric motors with electricity coming from fuel cells , solar cells , ultracapacitors , power beaming , or batteries . Currently, flying electric aircraft are mostly experimental prototypes, including manned and unmanned aerial vehicles , but there are some production models on
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#17327727381861870-426: A single wing plane, a biplane has two stacked one above the other, a tandem wing has two placed one behind the other. When the available engine power increased during the 1920s and 30s and bracing was no longer needed, the unbraced or cantilever monoplane became the most common form of powered type. The wing planform is the shape when seen from above. To be aerodynamically efficient, a wing should be straight with
1955-435: A small and simple engine for high-speed use, such as with missiles. Ramjets require forward motion before they can generate thrust and so are often used in conjunction with other forms of propulsion, or with an external means of achieving sufficient speed. The Lockheed D-21 was a Mach 3+ ramjet-powered reconnaissance drone that was launched from a parent aircraft . A ramjet uses the vehicle's forward motion to force air through
2040-468: A span of 14 m (46 ft). All-up weight was 300 kilograms (660 lb). On 9 October 1890, Ader attempted to fly the Éole . Aviation historians give credit to this effort as a powered take-off and uncontrolled hop of approximately 50 m (160 ft) at a height of approximately 200 mm (7.9 in). Ader's two subsequent machines were not documented to have achieved flight. The American Wright brothers 's flights in 1903 are recognized by
2125-412: A summer activity for ski resorts (apparently without great success). NASA originated the term "paraglider" in the early 1960s, and ‘paragliding’ was first used in the early 1970s to describe foot-launching of gliding parachutes. Although their use is mainly recreational, unmanned paragliders have also been built for military applications e.g. Atair Insect . The main application today of glider aircraft
2210-461: A type of rotary aircraft engine, he did not create and fly a powered fixed-wing aircraft. The Frenchman Clement Ader constructed his first of three flying machines in 1886, the Éole . It was a bat-like design run by a lightweight steam engine of his own invention, with four cylinders developing 20 horsepower (15 kW ), driving a four-blade propeller . The engine weighed no more than 4 kilograms per kilowatt (6.6 lb/hp). The wings had
2295-486: Is Mach 0.6. Aircraft designed to go faster than that employ jet engines. Reciprocating engines in aircraft have three main variants, radial , in-line and flat or horizontally opposed engine . The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel and was commonly used for aircraft engines before gas turbine engines became predominant. An inline engine
2380-421: Is a reciprocating engine with banks of cylinders, one behind another, rather than rows of cylinders, with each bank having any number of cylinders, but rarely more than six, and may be water-cooled. A flat engine is an internal combustion engine with horizontally-opposed cylinders. A turboprop gas turbine engine consists of an intake, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle, which provide power from
2465-709: Is a toy aircraft (usually a glider) made out of paper or paperboard; the practice of constructing paper planes is sometimes referred to as aerogami (Japanese: kamihikōki), after origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. Model glider aircraft are flying or non-flying models of existing or imaginary gliders, often scaled-down versions of full size planes, using lightweight materials such as polystyrene , balsa wood , foam and fibreglass . Designs range from simple glider aircraft, to accurate scale models , some of which can be very large. Larger outdoor models are usually radio-controlled gliders that are piloted remotely from
2550-608: Is done by individual designers and home builders. Unlike a sailplane, a hang glider is capable of being carried, foot launched and landed solely by the use of the pilot's legs. In a hang glider the shape of the wing is determined by a structure, and it is this that distinguishes them from the other main type of foot-launched aircraft, paragliders , technically Class 3. Some hang gliders have engines, and are known as powered hang gliders . Due to their commonality of parts, construction and design, they are usually considered by aviation authorities to be hang gliders, even though they may use
2635-420: Is less than 1% of the world's cargo movement. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled such as drones. The Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane in 1903, recognized as "the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight". They built on the works of George Cayley dating from 1799, when he set forth
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2720-638: Is only recorded a long time after it allegedly took place. A 17th-century account reports an attempt at flight by the 9th-century poet Abbas Ibn Firnas near Córdoba, Spain which ended in heavy back injuries. The monk Eilmer of Malmesbury is reported by William of Malmesbury ( c. 1080 – c. 1143 ), a fellow monk and historian, to have flown off the roof of his Abbey in Malmesbury , England, sometime between 1000 and 1010 AD, gliding about 200 metres (220 yd) before crashing and breaking his legs. According to these reports, both used
2805-420: Is responsible for the radar. The production of such parts is not limited to the same city or country; in the case of large plane manufacturing companies, such parts can come from all over the world. The parts are sent to the main plant of the plane company, where the production line is located. In the case of large planes, production lines dedicated to the assembly of certain parts of the plane can exist, especially
2890-563: Is sport and recreation. Gliders were developed from the 1920s for recreational purposes. As pilots began to understand how to use rising air, gliders were developed with a high lift-to-drag ratio . These allowed longer glides to the next source of ' lift ', and so increase their chances of flying long distances. This gave rise to the popular sport known as gliding although the term can also be used to refer to merely descending flight. Such gliders designed for soaring are sometimes called sailplanes. Gliders were mainly built of wood and metal but
2975-714: Is supple, consisting mainly of woven material. Military gliders were used mainly during the Second World War for carrying troops and heavy equipment (see Glider infantry ) to a combat zone, including the British Airspeed Horsa , Russian Polikarpov BDP S-1 , American Waco CG-3 , Japanese Kokusai Ku-8 , and German Junkers Ju 322 . These aircraft were towed into the air and most of the way to their target by military transport planes, e.g. C-47 Dakota , or by bombers that had been relegated to secondary activities, e.g. Short Stirling . Once released from
3060-413: Is the basis for most recreational flights and competitions, though aerobatics and 'spot landing competitions' also occur. Launching is often done by jogging down a slope, but winch launches behind a towing vehicle are also used. A Paramotor is a paraglider wing powered by a motor attached to the back of the pilot, and is also known as a powered paraglider . A variation of this is the paraplane , which has
3145-580: The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the standard-setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics , as "the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight". By 1905, the Wright Flyer III was capable of fully controllable, stable flight for substantial periods. The Wright brothers credited Otto Lilienthal as a major inspiration for their decision to pursue manned flight. In 1906,
3230-687: The Bell X-1 in 1946 up to the North American X-15 spent more time flying unpowered than under power. In the 1960s research was also done on unpowered lifting bodies and on the X-20 Dyna-Soar project, but although the X20 was cancelled, this research eventually led to the Space Shuttle. NASA 's Space Shuttle first flew on April 12, 1981. The Shuttle re-entered at Mach 25 at the end of each spaceflight , landing entirely as
3315-574: The Horten flying wings , the scaled glider version of the Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52 jet powered flying wing. Lifting bodies were also developed using unpowered prototypes. Although the idea can be dated to Vincent Justus Burnelli in 1921, interest was nearly non-existent until it appeared to be a solution for returning spacecraft. Traditional space capsules have little directional control while conventionally winged craft cannot handle
3400-487: The air sports of gliding , hang gliding and paragliding . However some spacecraft have been designed to descend as gliders and in the past military gliders have been used in warfare. Some simple and familiar types of glider are toys such as paper planes and balsa wood gliders. Glider is the agent noun form of the verb to glide . It derives from Middle English gliden , which in turn derived from Old English glīdan . The oldest meaning of glide may have denoted
3485-455: The 11th-century English monk Eilmer of Malmesbury ; both experiments injured their pilots. Leonardo da Vinci researched the wing design of birds and designed a man-powered aircraft in his Codex on the Flight of Birds (1502), noting for the first time the distinction between the center of mass and the center of pressure of flying birds. In 1799, George Cayley set forth the concept of
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3570-605: The 1920s and 30s, wings could be made heavy and strong enough that bracing was not needed any more. This type of unbraced wing is called a cantilever wing. The number and shape of the wings varies widely on different types. A given wing plane may be full-span or divided by a central fuselage into port (left) and starboard (right) wings. Occasionally, even more wings have been used, with the three-winged triplane achieving some fame in WWI. The four-winged quadruplane and other multiplane designs have had little success. A monoplane has
3655-491: The 1930s, and sport gliding has become the main application of gliders. As their performance improved, gliders began to be used to fly cross-country and now regularly fly hundreds or even over a thousand of kilometers in a day, if the weather is suitable. Military gliders were developed by during World War II by a number of countries for landing troops,. A glider – the Colditz Cock – was even built secretly by POWs as
3740-462: The 1960s and pioneered engineering concepts for later aircraft and spacecraft. Military transport aircraft may employ rocket-assisted take offs for short-field situations. Otherwise, rocket aircraft include spaceplanes , like SpaceShipTwo , for travel beyond the Earth's atmosphere and sport aircraft developed for the short-lived Rocket Racing League . Most airplanes are constructed by companies with
3825-742: The Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont made what was claimed to be the first airplane flight unassisted by catapult and set the first world record recognized by the Aéro-Club de France by flying 220 meters (720 ft) in less than 22 seconds. This flight was also certified by the FAI. An early aircraft design that brought together the modern monoplane tractor configuration was the Blériot VIII design of 1908. It had movable tail surfaces controlling both yaw and pitch,
3910-622: The Concorde to remove it from service. An aircraft propeller , or airscrew , converts rotary motion from an engine or other power source, into a swirling slipstream which pushes the propeller forwards or backwards. It comprises a rotating power-driven hub, to which are attached two or more radial airfoil -section blades such that the whole assembly rotates about a longitudinal axis. Three types of aviation engines used to power propellers include reciprocating engines (or piston engines), gas turbines , and electric motors . The amount of thrust
3995-495: The FAI based on a maximum weight. They are light enough to be transported easily, and can be flown without licensing in some countries. Ultralight gliders have performance similar to hang gliders , but offer some additional crash safety as the pilot can be strapped in an upright seat within a deformable structure. Landing is usually on one or two wheels which distinguishes these craft from hang gliders. Several commercial ultralight gliders have come and gone, but most current development
4080-810: The Korean War, transport aircraft had also become larger and more efficient so that even light tanks could be dropped by parachute, causing gliders to fall out of favor. Even after the development of powered aircraft, gliders have been built for research, where the lack of powerplant reduces complexity and construction costs and speeds development, particularly where new and poorly understood aerodynamic ideas are being tested that might require significant airframe changes. Examples have included delta wings, flying wings, lifting bodies and other unconventional lifting surfaces where existing theories were not sufficiently developed to estimate full scale characteristics. Unpowered flying wings built for aerodynamic research include
4165-606: The Russian Alexander F. Mozhaisky also made some innovative designs. In 1883, the American John J. Montgomery made a controlled flight in a glider. Other aviators who made similar flights at that time were Otto Lilienthal , Percy Pilcher , and Octave Chanute . Sir Hiram Maxim built a craft that weighed 3.5 tons, with a 110-foot (34 m) wingspan that was powered by two 360-horsepower (270 kW) steam engines driving two propellers. In 1894, his machine
4250-485: The air entering the engine must be decelerated to a subsonic speed and then re-accelerated back to supersonic speeds after combustion. An afterburner may be used on combat aircraft to increase power for short periods of time by injecting fuel directly into the hot exhaust gases. Many jet aircraft also use thrust reversers to slow down after landing. A ramjet is a form of jet engine that contains no major moving parts and can be particularly useful in applications requiring
4335-400: The altitude (normally a sailplane relies on rising air to maintain altitude) with some being powerful enough to take off by self-launch . There are a wide variety of types differing in the construction of their wings, aerodynamic efficiency, location of the pilot, controls and intended purpose. Most exploit meteorological phenomena to maintain or gain height. Gliders are principally used for
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#17327727381864420-437: The behavior of the aircraft. Computers are used by companies to draw, plan and do initial simulations of the aircraft. Small models and mockups of all or certain parts of the plane are then tested in wind tunnels to verify its aerodynamics. When the design has passed through these processes, the company constructs a limited number of prototypes for testing on the ground. Representatives from an aviation governing agency often make
4505-906: The case of international sales, a license from the public agency of aviation or transport of the country where the aircraft is to be used is also necessary. For example, airplanes made by the European company, Airbus , need to be certified by the FAA to be flown in the United States, and airplanes made by U.S.-based Boeing need to be approved by the EASA to be flown in the European Union. Regulations have resulted in reduced noise from aircraft engines in response to increased noise pollution from growth in air traffic over urban areas near airports. Small planes can be designed and constructed by amateurs as homebuilts. Other homebuilt aircraft can be assembled using pre-manufactured kits of parts that can be assembled into
4590-426: The combustion air, prior to the introduction and ignition of fuel. Rocket motors provide thrust by burning a fuel with an oxidizer and expelling gas through a nozzle. Most jet aircraft use turbofan jet engines, which employ a gas turbine to drive a ducted fan, which accelerates air around the turbine to provide thrust in addition to that which is accelerated through the turbine. The ratio of air passing around
4675-484: The concept of the modern airplane (and later built and flew models and successful passenger-carrying gliders ) and the work of German pioneer of human aviation Otto Lilienthal , who, between 1867 and 1896, also studied heavier-than-air flight. Lilienthal's flight attempts in 1891 are seen as the beginning of human flight. Following its limited use in World War I , aircraft technology continued to develop. Airplanes had
4760-511: The concept of the modern wing, his flight attempts in 1891 are seen as the beginning of human flight, the " Lilienthal Normalsegelapparat " is considered to be the first airplane in series production and his work heavily inspired the Wright brothers. In the 1890s, Lawrence Hargrave conducted research on wing structures and developed a box kite that lifted the weight of a man. His box kite designs were widely adopted. Although he also developed
4845-479: The end of WWII all-metal aircraft were common. In modern times, increasing use of composite materials has been made. Typical structural parts include: The wings of a fixed-wing aircraft are static planes extending either side of the aircraft. When the aircraft travels forwards, air flows over the wings, which are shaped to create lift. This shape is called an airfoil and is shaped like a bird's wing. Airplanes have flexible wing surfaces which are stretched across
4930-537: The enemy. The earliest known aerial victory with a synchronized machine gun-armed fighter aircraft occurred in 1915, by German Luftstreitkräfte Leutnant Kurt Wintgens . Fighter aces appeared; the greatest (by number of Aerial Combat victories) was Manfred von Richthofen , also known as the Red Baron. Following WWI, aircraft technology continued to develop. Alcock and Brown crossed the Atlantic non-stop for
5015-402: The engine for the entire flight. Some flexible wing powered aircraft, Ultralight trikes , have a wheeled undercarriage, and so are not hang gliders. A paraglider is a free-flying, foot-launched aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing. Unlike a hang glider whose wings have frames, the form of a paraglider wing is formed by the pressure of air entering vents or cells in
5100-426: The engine without resorting to turbines or vanes. Fuel is added and ignited, which heats and expands the air to provide thrust. A scramjet is a specialized ramjet that uses internal supersonic airflow to compress, combine with fuel, combust and accelerate the exhaust to provide thrust. The engine operates at supersonic speeds only. The NASA X-43 , an experimental unmanned scramjet, set a world speed record in 2004 for
5185-628: The first time in 1919. The first international commercial flights took place between the United States and Canada in 1919. Airplanes had a presence in all the major battles of World War II . They were an essential component of the military strategies of the period, such as the German Blitzkrieg , The Battle of Britain , and the American and Japanese aircraft carrier campaigns of the Pacific War . The first practical jet aircraft
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#17327727381865270-492: The front of the wing. This is known as a ram-air wing (similar to the smaller parachute design). The paraglider's light and simple design allows them to be packed and carried in large backpacks, and make them one of the simplest and economical modes of flight. Competition level wings can achieve glide ratios up to 1:10 and fly around speeds of 45 km/h (28 mph). Like sailplanes and hang gliders, paragliders use rising air (thermals or ridge lift) to gain height. This process
5355-451: The ground with a transmitter . These can remain airborne for extended periods by using the lift produced by slopes and thermals . These can be winched into wind by a line attached to a hook under the fuselage with a ring, so that the line will drop when the model is overhead. Other methods of launching include towing aloft using a model powered aircraft, catapult-launching using an elastic bungee cord and hand-launching. When hand-launching
5440-399: The leading (front) to the trailing (rear) edge. Early airplane engines had little power, and lightness was very important. Also, early airfoil sections were very thin, and could not have a strong frame installed within. So, until the 1930s, most wings were too lightweight to have enough strength, and external bracing struts and wires were added. When the available engine power increased during
5525-474: The majority now have composite materials using glass, carbon fibre and aramid fibers. To minimise drag , these types have a fuselage and long narrow wings, i.e. a high aspect ratio . In the beginning, there were huge differences in the appearance of early-sailplanes. As technology and materials developed, the aspiration for the perfect balance between lift/drag, climbing ratio and gliding speed, made engineers from various producers create similar designs across
5610-491: The majority now land on wheels, often retractable. Some gliders, known as motor gliders , are designed for unpowered flight, but can deploy piston , rotary , jet or electric engines . Gliders are classified by the FAI for competitions into glider competition classes mainly on the basis of span and flaps. A class of ultralight sailplanes, including some known as microlift gliders and some as 'airchairs', has been defined by
5695-422: The manufacturer or the customer. The structural parts of a fixed-wing aircraft are called the airframe. The parts present can vary according to the aircraft's type and purpose. Early types were usually made of wood with fabric wing surfaces, When engines became available for powered flight around a hundred years ago, their mounts were made of metal. Then as speeds increased more and more parts became metal until by
5780-440: The market. Jet aircraft are propelled by jet engines , which are used because the aerodynamic limitations of propellers do not apply to jet propulsion. These engines are much more powerful than a reciprocating engine for a given size or weight and are comparatively quiet and work well at higher altitude. Variants of the jet engine include the ramjet and the scramjet , which rely on high airspeed and intake geometry to compress
5865-406: The modern airplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. Cayley was building and flying models of fixed-wing aircraft as early as 1803, and he built a successful passenger-carrying glider in 1853. In 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first powered flight, by having his glider "L'Albatros artificiel" pulled by a horse on a beach. Then
5950-406: The newer "discus" style of wing-tip hand-launching has largely supplanted the earlier "javelin" type of launch. A glide bomb is a bomb with aerodynamic surfaces to allow a gliding flightpath rather than a ballistic one. This allows the bomber aircraft to stand off from the target and launch the bomb from a safe distance. Most types have a remote control system which enables the aircraft to direct
6035-405: The objective of producing them in quantity for customers. The design and planning process, including safety tests, can last up to four years for small turboprops or longer for larger planes. During this process, the objectives and design specifications of the aircraft are established. First the construction company uses drawings and equations, simulations, wind tunnel tests and experience to predict
6120-586: The public agency in charge and authorizing the mass production of aircraft is Transport Canada's Civil Aviation Authority. When a part or component needs to be joined together by welding for virtually any aerospace or defense application, it must meet the most stringent and specific safety regulations and standards. Nadcap , or the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program sets global requirements for quality, quality management and quality assurance for aerospace engineering. In
6205-537: The stresses of re-entry, whereas a lifting body combines the benefits of both. The lifting bodies use the fuselage itself to generate lift without employing the usual thin and flat wing so as to minimize the drag and structure of a wing for very high supersonic or hypersonic flight as might be experienced during the re-entry of a spacecraft . Examples of type are the Northrop HL-10 and Martin-Marietta X-24 . The NASA Paresev Rogallo flexible wing glider
6290-619: The term "airplane" is used for powered fixed-wing aircraft. In the United Kingdom and Ireland and most of the Commonwealth , the term "aeroplane" ( / ˈ ɛər ə p l eɪ n / ) is usually applied to these aircraft. Many stories from antiquity involve flight, such as the Greek legend of Icarus and Daedalus , and the Vimana in ancient Indian epics . Around 400 BC in Greece , Archytas
6375-403: The tow near the target, they landed as close to the target as possible. Advantages over paratroopers were that heavy equipment could be landed and that the troops were quickly assembled rather than being dispersed over a drop zone. The gliders were treated as disposable leading to construction from common and inexpensive materials such as wood, though a few were retrieved and re-used. By the time of
6460-408: The turbine to that passing through is called the by-pass ratio . They represent a compromise between turbojet (with no bypass) and turboprop forms of aircraft propulsion (primarily powered with bypass air). Subsonic aircraft, such as airliners, employ high by-pass jet engines for fuel efficiency. Supersonic aircraft , such as jet fighters, use low-bypass turbofans. However at supersonic speeds,
6545-408: The wings and the fuselage. When complete, a plane is rigorously inspected to search for imperfections and defects. After approval by inspectors, the plane is put through a series of flight tests to assure that all systems are working correctly and that the plane handles properly. To meet a particular customer need, the airplane may be customised using components or packages of components provided by
6630-481: The word airplane , like aeroplane , derives from the French aéroplane , which comes from the Greek ἀήρ ( aēr ), "air" and either Latin planus , "level", or Greek πλάνος ( planos ), "wandering". " Aéroplane " originally referred just to the wing, as it is a plane moving through the air. In an example of synecdoche , the word for the wing came to refer to the entire aircraft. In the United States and Canada,
6715-451: The world. Both single-seat and two-seat gliders are available. Initially training was done by short 'hops' in primary gliders which are very basic aircraft with no cockpit and minimal instruments. Since shortly after World War II training has always been done in two-seat dual control gliders, but high performance two-seaters are also used to share the workload and the enjoyment of long flights. Originally skids were used for landing, but
6800-637: Was built to investigate alternative methods of recovering spacecraft. Although this application was abandoned, publicity inspired hobbyists to adapt the flexible wing airfoil for modern hang gliders. Rocket-powered aircraft consume their fuel quickly and so most must land unpowered unless there is another power source. The first rocket plane was the Lippisch Ente , and later examples include the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor. The American series of research aircraft starting with
6885-409: Was reputed to have designed and built the first artificial, self-propelled flying device, a bird-shaped model propelled by a jet of what was probably steam, said to have flown some 200 m (660 ft). This machine may have been suspended for its flight. Some of the earliest recorded attempts with gliders were those by the 9th-century Andalusian and Arabic-language poet Abbas ibn Firnas and
6970-523: Was tested with overhead rails to prevent it from rising. The test showed that it had enough lift to take off. The craft was uncontrollable and it is presumed that Maxim realized this because he subsequently abandoned work on it. Between 1867 and 1896, the German pioneer of human aviation Otto Lilienthal developed heavier-than-air flight. He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful gliding flights. Lilienthal's work led to him developing
7055-476: Was the German Heinkel He 178 , which was tested in 1939. In 1943, the Messerschmitt Me 262 , the first operational jet fighter aircraft, went into service in the German Luftwaffe . The first jet airliner , the de Havilland Comet , was introduced in 1952. The Boeing 707 , the first widely successful commercial jet, was in commercial service for more than 50 years, from 1958 to 2010. The Boeing 747
7140-423: Was the first to make repeated successful flights (eventually totaling over 2,000) and was the first to use rising air to prolong his flight. Using a Montgomery tandem-wing glider, Daniel Maloney was the first to demonstrate high-altitude controlled flight using a balloon-launched glider launched from 4,000 feet in 1905. The Wright Brothers developed a series of three manned gliders after preliminary tests with
7225-529: Was the world's biggest passenger aircraft from 1970 until it was surpassed by the Airbus A380 in 2005. Supersonic airliner flights , including those of the Concorde , have been limited to over-water flight at supersonic speed because of their sonic boom , which is prohibited over most populated land areas. The high cost of operation per passenger-mile and a deadly crash in 2000 induced the operators of
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