By Ethan A. Hoover

• Home
• Introduction
• Forces
• Steering
• Pressure
• Bibliography

How does the airplane fly?

Though there are many different types of aircraft, many of them use similar designs, and experience similar forces. The two main types of aircraft are known by their method of propulsion or thrust as it is known as. The two main kinds include jet propulsion and for mainly larger aircraft's and propellers that propel smaller planes, known often as prop planes, with a similar goal in mind, that goal being to move the aircraft forward.

   

What are the main parts of an airplane?

Picture courtesy of hooked-on-rc-airplanes.com

As scene in the picture above, the major components of an airplane are the fuselage, the wings, the empennage (the entire tail group), the landing gear, and the power plant.

Fuselage

The fuselage of an aircraft is the central frame and body of the airplane, this determines the strength of the frame and its material types, along with how much space is in the plane for things like crew, cargo, and passengers.

Wings

The wings of the aircraft are attached to the fuselage on either side and are the main source of lift used to enable flight. There are many designs that vary in size and shape depending on what the planes purpose is, whether that may be passengers, cargo, or speed. The wings themselves are comprised of the fuel tank for carrying fuel, the ribs of the wing that provide structure, the wing tip, the outer skin or shell of the wing, the wing flaps at the back of the wing, and the aileron.

Empennage

Empennage represents the group of tail stabilizers and moveable surfaces such as the rudder or elevators that increase the maneuverability of the aircraft during flight. There are other designs that don't require elevators but instead use a one-piece horizontal stabilizer.

Landing Gear

Without landing gear, a plane would have no way of taking off or landing. Depending on the type of plane, landing gear determines the environment in which the plane can operate on the ground. This could either be wheels for use on runways or floaters for landing in water.

Power Plant

The power plant is a group which includes the engine and propeller system, the angle of the propeller blade and the power of the engine define the effectiveness of the power plant. Turbine systems function much in the same way as the propeller in terms of the engine and blade system, turbines differ in how air is moved as the air is compressed and flows through instead of around like in the case of the propeller.