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Airplane News Links:
Small Plane Crashes in NJ's Shark River
6 Jul 2008 at 10:50pm
The only person aboard a small homebuilt plane that crashed into the shallow waters of the Shark Riv...
Plane that crashed may have been home-made
6 Jul 2008 at 7:00am
It may have been a home-made plane that crashed into the Shark River Saturday evening, a State Pol...
State police: Crashed plane apparently identified
6 Jul 2008 at 10:44pm
State police divers continued to sift through the muddy bottom of the Shark River on Sunday afternoo...
Now, rising oil worries airport developers
6 Jul 2008 at 10:43pm
NEW DELHI: Rising oil prices are creating pain for airport developers too. Faced with a slowdown in ...
Aircraft Dispatch
6 Jul 2008 at 10:24pm
Sheffield School of Aeronautics is one of the oldest aviation training institutions in the U.S. Near...
Milestones of Flight: 7/6
6 Jul 2008 at 10:20pm
In 2000 the FAA dropped Greece's rating to Category 2, stating that the country was not following th...
Pilots with high BP can't fly
6 Jul 2008 at 10:16pm
Pilots and cabin crew of domestic airlines who suffer from hypertension would be grounded till their...
Lightning bolt shocks MP
6 Jul 2008 at 10:06pm
National MP Lockwood Smith and a full cabin of passengers had a shocking experience when a bolt of l...

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Airplane:
An airplane, or fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air craft where movement of the wings in relation to the aircraft is not used to generate lift. The term is used to distinguish from rotary-wing aircraft or ornithopters, where the movement of the wing surfaces relative to the aircraft generates lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are called airplanes in North America (the U.S. and Canada), and aeroplanes in Commonwealth countries and Ireland (excluding Canada). The current British word is the older of the two terms, dating back to the mid-late 19th century. Fixed-wing aircraft may be manned or not; they may be large or tiny; every fixed-wing aircraft is open to being scale modeled by perhaps a smaller or larger mimic fixed wing aircraft. Many fixed-wing aircraft may be remotely controlled or robot controlled.

Overview:
Fixed-wing aircraft range from small training and recreational aircraft to large airliners and military cargo aircraft. The word also embraces aircraft with folding or removable wings that are intended to fold when on the ground. This is usually to ease storage or facilitate transport on, for example, a vehicle trailer or the powered lift connecting the hangar deck of an aircraft carrier to its flight deck. It also embraces "variable geometry" aircraft, such as the General Dynamics F-111, Grumman F-14 Tomcat and the Panavia Tornado, which can vary the sweep angle of their wings during flight. There are also rare examples of aircraft which can vary the angle of incidence of their wings in flight, such the F-8 Crusader, which are also considered to be "fixed-wing".

The two necessities for fixed-wing aircraft are air flow over the wings for lifting of the aircraft, and an area for landing. The majority of aircraft, however, also need an airport with the infrastructure to receive maintenance, restocking, refueling and for the loading and unloading of crew, cargo and passengers. Some aircraft are capable of take off and landing on ice, aircraft carriers, snow, and calm water.

The aircraft is the second fastest method of transport, after the rocket. Commercial jet aircraft can reach up to 900 km/h. Single-engined aircraft are capable of reaching 175 km/h or more at cruise speed. Supersonic aircraft (military, research and a few private aircraft) can reach speeds faster than sound. The speed record for a plane powered by an air-breathing engine is held by the experimental NASA X-43, which reached nearly ten times the speed of sound.

The biggest aircraft still in service is Antonov An-225, while the fastest still in production is the Mikoyan MiG-31. The biggest supersonic jet ever produced and still in service is the Tupolev-160.

Parts - A fixed-wing aircraft can be divided into the following major parts:

1. A long narrow often cylindrical form, called a fuselage, usually with tapered or rounded ends to make its shape aerodynamically smooth. The fuselage carries the human flight crew if the aircraft is piloted, the passengers if the aircraft is a passenger aircraft, other cargo or payload, and engines and/or fuel if the aircraft is so equipped. The pilots operate the aircraft from a cockpit located at the front or top of the fuselage and equipped with windows, controls, and instruments. Passengers and cargo occupy the remaining available space in the fuselage. Some aircraft may have two fuselages, or additional pods or booms.

2. A wing (or wings in a multiplane) with an airfoil cross-section shape, used to generate aerodynamic lifting force to support the aircraft in flight by deflecting air downward as the aircraft moves forward. The wing halves are typically symmetrical about the plane of symmetry (for symmetrical aircraft). The wing also stabilize the aircraft about its roll axis and the ailerons control rotation about that axis.

3. At least one control surface (or surfaces) mounted vertically usually above the rear of the fuselage, called a vertical stabilizer. The vertical stabilizer is used to stabilize the aircraft about its yaw axis (the axis in which the aircraft turns from side to side) and to control its rotation along that axis. Some aircraft have multiple vertical stabilizers.

4. At least one horizontal surface at the front or back of the fuselage used to stabilize the aircraft about its pitch axis (the axis around which the aircraft tilts upward or downward). The horizontal stabilizer (also known as tailplane) is usually mounted near the rear of the fuselage, or at the top of the vertical stabilizer, or sometimes a canard is mounted near the front of the fuselage for the same purpose.

5. On powered aircraft, one or more aircraft engines, are propulsion units that provide thrust to push the aircraft forward through the air. The engine is optional in the case of gliders that are not motor gliders. The most common propulsion units are propellers, powered by reciprocating or turbine engines, and jet engines, which provide thrust directly from the engine and usually also from a large fan mounted within the engine. When the number of engines is even, they are distributed symmetrically about the roll axis of the aircraft, which lies along the plane of symmetry (for symmetrical aircraft); when the number is odd, the odd engine is usually mounted along the centerline of the fuselage.

6. Landing gear, a set of wheels, skids, or floats that support the aircraft while it is on the surface.

Controls:
A number of controls allow pilots to direct aircraft in the air. The controls found in a typical fixed-wing aircraft are as follows:

1. A yoke or joystick, which controls rotation of the aircraft about the pitch and roll axes. A yoke resembles a kind of steering wheel, and a control stick is just a simple rod with a handgrip. The pilot can pitch the aircraft downward by pushing on the yoke or stick, and pitch the aircraft upward by pulling on it. Rolling the aircraft is accomplished by turning the yoke in the direction of the desired roll, or by tilting the control stick in that direction. Pitch changes are used to adjust the altitude and speed of the aircraft; roll changes are used to make the aircraft turn. Control sticks and yokes are usually positioned between the pilot's legs; however, a sidestick is a type of control stick that is positioned on either side of the pilot (usually the left side for the pilot in the left seat, and vice versa, if there are two pilot seats).

2. Rudder pedals, which control rotation of the aircraft about the yaw axis. There are two pedals that pivot so that when one is pressed forward the other moves backward, and vice versa. The pilot presses on the right rudder pedal to make the aircraft yaw to the right, and on the left pedal to make it yaw to the left. The rudder is used mainly to balance the aircraft in turns, or to compensate for winds or other effects that tend to turn the aircraft about the yaw axis.

3. A throttle, which adjusts the thrust produced by the aircraft's engines. The pilot uses the throttle to increase or decrease the speed of the aircraft, and to adjust the aircraft's altitude (higher speeds cause the aircraft to climb, lower speeds cause it to descend). In some aircraft the throttle is a single lever that controls thrust; in others, adjusting the throttle means adjusting a number of different engine controls simultaneously. Aircraft with multiple engines usually have individual throttle controls for each engine.

4. Brakes, used to slow and stop the aircraft on the ground, and sometimes for turns on the ground.

Other possible controls include:
5. Flap levers, which are used to control the position of flaps on the wings.

6. Spoiler levers, which are used to control the position of spoilers on the wings, and to arm their automatic deployment in aircraft designed to deploy them upon landing.

7. Trim controls, which usually take the form of knobs or wheels and are used to adjust pitch, roll, or yaw trim. A tiller, a small wheel or lever used to steer the aircraft on the ground (in conjunction with or instead of the rudder pedals).

8. A parking brake, used to prevent the aircraft from rolling when it is parked on the ground.

The controls may allow full or partial automation of flight, such as an autopilot, a wing leveler, or a flight management system. Pilots adjust these controls to select a specific attitude or mode of flight, and then the associated automation maintains that attitude or mode until the pilot disables the automation or changes the settings. In general, the larger and/or more complex the aircraft, the greater the amount of automation available to pilots.

Control Duplication:
On an aircraft with a pilot and copilot, or instructor and trainee, the aircraft is made capable of control without the crew changing seats. The most common arrangement is two complete sets of controls, one for each of two pilots sitting side by side, but in some aircraft (military fighter aircraft, some taildraggers and aerobatic aircraft) the dual sets of controls are arranged one in front of the other. A few of the less important controls may not be present in both positions, and one position is usually intended for the pilot in command (e.g., the left “captain's seat” in jet airliners). Some small aircraft use controls that can be moved from one position to another, such as a single yoke that can be swung into position in front of either the left-seat pilot or the right-seat pilot.

Aircraft that require more than one pilot usually have controls intended to suit each pilot position, but still with sufficient duplication so that all pilots can fly the aircraft alone in an emergency. For example, in jet airliners, the controls on the left (captain's) side include both the basic controls and those normally manipulated by the pilot in command, such as the tiller, whereas those of the right (first officer's) side include the basic controls again and those normally manipulated by the copilot, such as flap levers. The unduplicated controls that are required for flight are positioned so that they can be reached by either pilot, but they are often designed to be more convenient to the pilot who manipulates them under normal condition.

Aircraft Instruments:
Instruments provide information to the pilot. When these instruments are electronic, they are called avionics. An aircraft that uses electronic displays almost exclusively is said to have a glass cockpit.

Basic Instruments Include:

1. An airspeed indicator, which indicates the speed at which the aircraft is moving through the surrounding air. An altimeter, which indicates the altitude of the aircraft above the ground or above mean sea level. An attitude indicator, sometimes called an artificial horizon, which indicates the exact orientation of the aircraft about its pitch and roll axes.

Other Instruments Might Include:

2. A Turn coordinator, which helps the pilot maintain the aircraft in a coordinated attitude while turning.

3. A rate-of-climb indicator, which shows the rate at which the aircraft is climbing or descending.

4. A horizontal situation indicator, shows the position and movement of the aircraft as seen from above with respect to the ground, including course/heading and other information.

5. Instruments showing the status of each engine in the aircraft (operating speed, thrust, temperature, and other variables).

6. Combined display systems such as primary flight displays or navigation displays.

7. Information displays such as on-board weather radar displays.

Types of Fixed-Wing Aircraft:

Gliders:
Gliders or sailplanes are aircraft designed for unpowered flight. Most gliders are intended for use in the sport of gliding and so have high aerodynamic efficiency. Lift-to-drag ratios may exceed 70 to 1. After launch, the energy for sustained gliding flight is obtained through the skillful exploitation of rising air in the atmosphere. Glider flights of thousands of kilometres at average speeds over 200 km/h have been achieved. The glider is most commonly launched by a tow-plane or by a winch. Some gliders, called motor gliders, are equipped with engines (often retractable) and some are capable of self-launching. Military gliders have been used in war to deliver assault troops, and specialized gliders have been used in atmospheric and aerodynamic research. The most numerous class of gliders are hang gliders; hang gliders generally are slower, less massive, and less expensive than sailplanes; hang gliders are generally categorized into a default use of the term "hang glider" for hang gliders that have considerable stiffening and the fully-flexible non-sparred-winged hang gliders called "paragliders".

Propeller Aircraft:
Smaller and older propeller aircraft make use of reciprocating internal combustion engines that turns a propeller to create thrust. They are quieter than jet aircraft, but they fly at lower speeds, and have lower load capacity compared to similar sized jet powered aircraft. However, they are significantly cheaper and much more economical than jets, and are generally the best option for people who need to transport a few passengers and/or small amounts of cargo. They are also the aircraft of choice for pilots who wish to own an aircraft.

Turboprop aircraft are a halfway point between propeller and jet: they use a turbine engine similar to a jet to turn propellers. These aircraft are popular with commuter and regional airlines, as they tend to be more economical on shorter journeys.

Jet Aircraft:
Jet aircraft make use of turbines for the creation of thrust. These engines are much more powerful than a reciprocating engine. As a consequence, they have greater weight capacity and fly faster than propeller driven aircraft. One drawback, however, is that they are noisy; this makes jet aircraft a source of noise pollution. However, turbofan jet engines are quieter, and they have seen widespread usage partly for that reason.

The jet aircraft was developed in Germany in 1931. The first jet was the Heinkel He 178, which was tested at Germany's Marienehe Airfield in 1939. In 1943 the Messerschmitt Me 262, the first jet fighter aircraft, went into service in the German Luftwaffe. In the early 1950's, only a few years after the first jet was produced in large numbers, the De Havilland Comet became the world's first jet airliner. However, the early Comets were beset by structural problems discovered after numerous pressurization and depressurization cycles, leading to extensive redesigns.

Most wide-body aircraft can carry hundreds of passengers and several tons of cargo, and are able to travel for distances up to 17,000 km. Aircraft in this category are the Boeing 747, Boeing 767, Boeing 777, the upcoming Boeing 787, Airbus A300/A310, Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A380, Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, McDonnell Douglas DC-10, McDonnell Douglas MD-11, Ilyushin Il-86 and Ilyushin Il-96.

Jet aircraft possess high cruising speeds (700 to 900 km/h, or 400 to 550 mph) and high speeds for take-off and landing (150 to 250 km/h). Due to the speed needed for takeoff and landing, jet aircraft make use of flaps and leading edge devices for the control of lift and speed, as well as engine reversers (or thrust reversers) to direct the airflow forward, slowing down the aircraft upon landing.

Supersonic Jet Aircraft:
Supersonic aircraft, such as military fighters and bombers, Concorde, and others, make use of special turbines (often utilizing afterburners), that generate the huge amounts of power for flight faster than the speed of the sound.

Flight at supersonic speed creates more noise than flight at subsonic speeds, due to the phenomenon of sonic booms. This limits supersonic flights to areas of low population density or open ocean. When approaching an area of heavier population density, supersonic aircraft are obliged to fly at subsonic speed.

Due to the high costs, limited areas of use and low demand there are no longer any supersonic aircraft in use by any major airline. The last Concorde flight was on 26 November 2003. It appears that supersonic aircraft will remain in use almost exclusively by militaries around the world for the foreseeable future, though research into new civilian designs continues.

Rocket-Powered Aircraft:
Experimental rocket powered aircraft were developed by the Germans as early as World War II, and about 29 were manufactured and deployed. The first fixed wing aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight was a rocket plane- the Bell X-1. The later North American X-15 was another important rocket plane that broke many speed and altitude records and laid much of the groundwork for later aircraft and spacecraft design. Rocket aircraft are not in common usage today, although rocket-assisted takeoffs are used for some military aircraft. SpaceShipOne is the most famous current rocket aircraft, being the testbed for developing a commercial sub-orbital passenger service; another rocket plane is the XCOR EZ-Rocket; and there is of course the Space Shuttle.

Ramjet Aircraft:
Ramjet is a form of jet engine that contains no major moving parts and can be particularly useful in applications requiring a small and simple engine for high speed use, such as missiles. The D-21 Tagboard was an unmanned Mach 3+ reconnaissance drone that was put into production in 1969 for spying, but due to the development of better spy satellites, it was cancelled in 1971. The SR-71's Pratt & Whitney J58 engines ran 80% as ramjets at high-speeds (Mach 3.2). The SR-71 was dropped in the early 70's and then brought back during the cold war. They were used also in the Gulf War. The last SR-71 flight was in October, 2001.

Scramjet Aircraft:
Scramjet aircraft are in the experimental stage. The Boeing X-43 is an experimental scramjet with a world speed record for a jet-powered aircraft - Mach 9.6, nearly 12,000 km/h (7,000 mph) at an altitude of about 36,000 meters (110,000 ft). The X-43A set the flight speed record on 16 November 2004.

Designing and Constructing an Aircraft:
Small aircraft can be designed and constructed by amateurs as homebuilts, such as Chris Neil's Woody Helicopter. Other aviators with less knowledge make their aircraft using pre-manufactured kits, assembling the parts into a complete aircraft.

Most aircraft are constructed by companies with 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, and up to 12 years for aircraft with the capacity of the A380.

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 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 aircraft are then tested in wind tunnels to verify the aerodynamics of the aircraft.

When the design has passed through these processes, the company constructs a limited number of these aircraft for testing on the ground. Representatives from an aviation governing agency often make 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 of the aircraft.

In the United States, this agency is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and in the European Union, Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA). In Canada, the public agency in charge and authorizing the mass production of aircraft is Transport Canada.

In the case of the international sales of aircraft, a license from the public agency of aviation or transports of the country where the aircraft is also to be used is necessary. For example, aircraft from Airbus need to be certified by the FAA to be flown in the United States and vice versa, aircraft of Boeing need to be approved by the JAA to be flown in the European Union.

Quieter aircraft are becoming more and more needed due to the increase in air traffic, particularly over urban areas, as noise pollution is a major concern. MIT and Cambridge University have been designing delta-wing aircraft that are 25 times more silent (63 dB) than current craft and can be used for military and commercial purposes. The project is called the Silent Aircraft Initiative, but production models will not be available until around 2030.

Industrialized Production:
There are few companies that produce aircraft on a large scale. However, the production of an aircraft 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 aircraft. For example, one company can be responsible for the production of the landing gear, while another one is responsible for the radar. The production of such parts is not limited to the same city or country; in the case of large aircraft manufacturing companies, such parts can come from all over the world.

The parts are sent to the main plant of the aircraft company, where the production line is located. In the case of large aircraft, production lines dedicated to the assembly of certain parts of the aircraft can exist, especially the wings and the fuselage.

When complete, an aircraft goes through a set of rigorous inspection, to search for imperfections and defects, and after being approved by the inspectors, the aircraft is tested by a pilot, in a flight test, in order to assure that the controls of the aircraft are working properly. With this final test, the aircraft is ready to receive the "final touchups" (internal configuration, painting, etc), and is then ready for the customer.

Safety:
Many people who believe flying is flat-out the safest form of travel quote the statistic which measures deaths per passenger-kilometre, which places air travel 20 times safer than car travel. However, this is unfair due to the long distances aircrafts usually cover compared to other forms of transport. Conversely, deaths per trip is unfair against the plane because other forms of travel like the automobile are used for far more trips per day than the plane.

Statistically, the fairest way to compare flying to other forms of travel would be to quote deaths per passenger-hour. By this method, every hour spent in a car is 10 times safer than an hour spent on a plane http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg16321985.200-flight-into-danger.html. Insurance companies seem to use this statistic as car insurance is cheaper than plane insurance.

The majority of aircraft accidents are a result of human error on the part of the pilot(s) or controller(s). After human error, mechanical failure is the biggest cause of air accidents, which sometimes also can involve a human component; e.g., negligence of the airline in carrying out proper maintenance. Adverse weather is the third largest cause of accidents. Icing, downbursts, and low visibility are often major contributors to weather related crashes. Birds have been ranked as a major cause for large rotor bursts on commercial turboprop engines, spurring extra safety measures to keep birds away. Technological advances such as ice detectors also help pilots ensure the safety of their aircraft.

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