Airplane

Rare card · No. 25402

An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), also plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from 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 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 Wright Flyer 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 the concept of the modern airplane...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Jules Meulemans, GFDL