Aviation

Aircraft
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"Flying machine" redirects here. For other uses, see Flying machine (disambiguation).
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An Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner |
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Categories of aircraft |
Supported by lighter-than-air gases (aerostats) |
Unpowered | Powered |
    * Balloon |     * Airship |
Supported by LTA gases + aerodynamic lift |
Unpowered | Powered |
    * Hybrid moored balloon   * Kytoon |     * Hybrid airship |
Supported by aerodynamic lift (aerodynes) |
Unpowered | Powered |
Unpowered fixed-wing | Powered fixed-wing |
    * Glider   * Hang gliders   * Paraglider   * Kite |     * Powered airplane (aeroplane)   * Powered hang gliders   * Powered paraglider   * Flettner airplane   * Ground-effect vehicle |
| Powered hybrid fixed/rotary wing |
|     * Tiltwing   * Tiltrotor   * Coleopter |
Unpowered rotary-wing | Powered rotary-wing |
    * Rotor kite |     * Autogyro   * Gyrodyne ("Heliplane")   * Helicopter |
| Powered aircraft driven by flapping |
|     * Ornithopter |
Other means of lift |
Unpowered | Powered |
|     * Hovercraft   * Flying Bedstead   * Avrocar |
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A hot air balloon (aircraft) in flight.
Aircraft are vehicles which are able to fly by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.[1]
Although rockets and missiles also travel through the atmosphere, most are not considered aircraft because they use rocket thrust instead of aerodynamics as the primary means of lift. However, rocket planes and cruise missiles are considered... [continues]

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