Aircraft[]
Aircraft are vehicles that travel through the air. The most common types of aircraft are airplanes, helicopters, drones and balloons.
Aircraft can generally be divided in aeronautical vehicles and thrust vehicles. Thrust vehicles keep themselves aloft by the thrust of their engines, while aeronautical vehicles use aeronautic lift to keep aloft.
Aeronautical vehicles can be divided into lighter-than-air aerostats that derive their lift from buoyancy and heavier-than-air vehicles that use aerodynamic lift, generated by pushing a wing through the air to generate lift.
Lighter than air vehicles (aerostats) can be divided into airships that push themselves through the air and balloons that drift with the wind.
Heavier than air vehicles using aerodynamic lift can be divided into airplanes that push their lifting surfaces forward in the direction of motion to generate lift, kites and gliders that instead have their lifting surfaces forward pulled through the air to generate lift, and rotorcraft that rotate their lifting surfaces round and round to generate lift.
Examples of thrust vehicles are rocket-belts, the DC-X Delta Clipper, and NASA Flying Bedstead
Rotorcraft can be divided into units which rotate the aerodynamic lift surface about a verical axis, and those that revolve around a horizontal axis.
Of those rotorcraft that use a vertical axis, they can be divided into: helicopters that derive lift by swinging a lifting surface around in a circle, like arms on a clock, with a connection point driven motion; rotordynes which like helicopters, rotate the lifting surface through a circle, but use tip mounted thrust units instead of a connection point powered unit; autogiros that let forward motion push the lifting surface around the central attachment point, by pushing the vehicle forward; rotor kites that are like autogiros, but which are pulled forward instead;
Of those rotorcraft that use a horizontal axis, they can be divided into: cyclogyros, fletter planes, magnus-effect planes, fanwings.
Of these, several aircraft are hybrids of these categories, and some deviate from the standard in some way, such as aerostats that are heavier-than-air, and use aerodynamic lift to overcome the lack of buoyancy.
Some aircraft have severe flight height restrictions, as they are ground effect vehicles or ekranoplanes. Some authorities do not count GEVs as aircraft.
Not all aeronautical vehicles are aircraft. Hovercraft, are not aircraft, though they depend on aerodynamic forces to lift the vehicle into the air. Hovercraft are extremely restricted in flight height, needing to be virtually in contact with the ground.
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Also see[]
- Agricultural aircraft
- UTVA-60
- Zlín Z 526
- North American X-15
- Missiles
- Drones
- AEW&C
- Bell X-1
- Bird strike
- Drones
- Short Sturgeon
- Aviation risks
- Highway Strip (military aviation)
- Turbo-Union RB199 aircraft turbofan jet engine
- Pilot Garry Powers
- Civil aircraft
- Cold War U-2 incident of 1960
- AI.24 Foxhunter Radar
- Cool fighters/ground attack aircraft
- Fulton surface-to-air 'sky-hook' recovery system
- Noteworthy Air bases
- The Korean Air Flight 007 incident in 1983
- Ferranti Blue Fox Radar
- Blue Vixen Radar
- Ekranoplans
- Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker
- Consolidated Catalina PBY-5A
- Pratt & Whitney TF30
- General Dynamics/Grumman EF-111A Raven/Electric Fox/Sparkvark
- Light Photographic Squadron 62 (VFP-62)
- Operation Chrome Dome
- Lockheed Martin KC-130
- Boeing C-135 Stratolifter
- Ilyushin Il-78
- Trainer aircraft
- QF-4 Aerial Target Drone
- Omega Tower Trelew
- OMEGA transmitter Chabrier, Réunion
- Omega (navigation system)
- Radar
- Radome
- Bombers
- Aircraft Engines
- Brandner E-300 engine
- Bristol Orpheus 703 engine
- Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine
- 1960 U-2 incident
- C-130 YMC-130H Lockheed Hercules
- Interceptor/Co'In/fighters/ground attack aircraft
- Cool fighters/ground attack aircraft
- The truth about air rage
- Aircraft videos
- Tupolev Tu-142
- Ilyushin Il-38
- DC-10 Air Tanker
- Lun-class ekranoplan
- Boeing P-8 Poseidon
- Noteworthy Air bases
- Helicopters
- Bombers
- Aircraft videos
- Tanker aircraft
- Civil aircraft
- Noteworthy Air bases
- Helicopters
- Flying Bedstead
- American X-aircraft
- Douglas C-54 Skymaster
- Noteworthy Air bases
- Helicopters
- Bombers
- Aircraft videos
- Trainer aircraft
- Reconnaissance aircraft
- Tanker aircraft
- American X-aircraft
- Flying Bedstead
- Civil aircraft
- Lockheed C-121 Constellation
- Lockheed L-1249 Super Constellation
- http://www.historyinorbit.com/the-biggest-planes-in-military-history/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=LAZ_historyinorbit.com-Desktop-ENG-Big-A1&utm_term=msn-uk&utm_campaign=A+747+Looks+Like+Toy+Next+To+This+Massive+Plane
- https://www.wired.com/story/photo-gallery-aerial-life-of-planes?mbid=nl_122817_daily_list1_p2&CNDID=50121752