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Lighter than air
Lighter than air aerostats: hot air balloons and airships. Aerostats use buoyancy to float in the air in much the same manner as ships float on the water. In particular, these aircraft use a relatively low density gas such as helium, hydrogen or heated air, to displace the air around the craft. The distinction between a balloon and an airship is that an airship has some means of controlling both its forward motion and steering itself, while balloons are carried along with the wind.
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Hot air balloon
Hot air balloons are the oldest successful human flight technology, dating back to the Montgolfier brothers' invention in Annonay, France in 1783. The first manned flight was made on November 21, 1783, in Paris by Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes. Balloons that can be propelled through the air rather than just being carried along by the wind are known as airships.
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Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship (or dirigible) pioneered by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century based on an earlier design by David Schwarz. Due to the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the term zeppelin in casual use came to refer to all rigid airships. This article, however, focuses on Zeppelins in the narrower sense of the word.
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Heavier than air
Heavier than air aerodynes, including autogyros, helicopters and variants, and conventional fixed-wing aircraft: aeroplanes in Commonwealth English (excluding Canada), airplanes in North American English. Fixed-wing aircraft generally use an internal-combustion engine in the form of a piston engine (with a propeller) or a turbine engine (jet or turboprop), to provide thrust that moves the craft forward through the air.
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CH-47 Chinook
The CH-47 Chinook is a versatile, twin-engine, twin-rotor heavy-lift helicopter. The contra-rotating rotors eliminate the need for a rear vertical rotor, allowing all power to be used for lift and thrust, giving a top speed of 173 mph (150 knots, 278 km/h).
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Boeing 767
The Boeing 767 is a commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.The Boeing 767, a widebody jet, was introduced at around the same time as the 757, its narrowbody sister.
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SR-71 Blackbird
The Lockheed SR-71 Type A, unofficially known as the Blackbird, is a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed YF-12A and A-12 aircraft by Lockheed's Skunk Works (also responsible for the U-2 and many other advanced aircraft).
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Some types of aircraft, such as the balloon or glider, do not have any propulsion. Balloons drift with the wind, though normally the pilot can control the altitude either by heating the air or by releasing ballast, giving some directional control (since the wind direction changes with altitude).
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For gliders, takeoff takes place from a high location, or the aircraft is pulled into the air by a ground-based winch or vehicle, or towed aloft by a powered "tug" aircraft. Airships combine a balloon's buoyancy with some kind of propulsion, usually propeller driven.
Until World War II, the internal combustion piston engine was virtually the only type of propulsion used for powered aircraft. (See also: Aircraft engine.) The piston engine is still used in the majority of aircraft produced, since it is efficient at the lower altitudes used by small aircraft, but the radial engine (with the cylinders arranged in a circle around the crankshaft) has largely given way to the horizontally-opposed engine (with the cylinders lined up on two sides of the crankshaft).
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