Over the years as aviation has progressed there have been several different types of aircraft. Aviators have changed everything from the landing gear to the aircraft shape itself.

Commercial- Commercial aircraft are the type that you travel on when you fly with an airline. All of the aircraft in the database are commercial unless otherwise noted. Most modern commercial aircraft are jets but some smaller ones are propeller driven.

Cargo- Many airlines that fly commercial passenger carrying aircraft also have cargo divisions. Some carry cargo in the holds of their passenger carrying aircraft. There are other companies that run solely cargo aircraft. Many commercial model also sell as cargo aircraft. The aircraft look pretty much the same as their passenger carrying counterparts except that there are no windows and large cargo doors. Some cargo aircraft even feature a swinging nose or tail section to allow for loading of over-sized items into the aircraft's hold.

General Aviation These are generally small propeller driven aircraft that are cheap enough that they can be purchased by the average Joe with a basic pilots license. There are several different models made by different companies such as Cessna, Cirrus, Beechcraft, and Piper to name a few. They usually have either 1 or 2 engines. They can seat anywhere from 1 to 10 or more people. These are the aircraft that are used by companies to move employees and executives from one place to another.

Military aircraft are all of the planes used by any branch of the armed forces. Here are what some of the designations that come before the number mean:

Taildraggers- Many older types of commercial aircraft and a few current general aviation models were and are taildraggers. Taildraggers do just what their name suggests, they drag their tails. Although they don't literally scrape their tales down the runway, they do have a very small wheel on the back end of the fuselage that rests on the ground while taxiing or just while the aircraft is not in use. An example of an older commercial aircraft that was a taildragger and is known by just about everyone in the aviation community is the famed Douglas DC-3. Taildraggers usually have three parts to their landing gear system. There are two main gear legs, one under each wing and the small tail wheel. In this type of aircraft, steering is accomplished by swiveling the tail wheel.

Tricycle- This type of gear also has three parts. The major difference is that, instead of having a smaller tail wheel tricycle gear types have an equally large wheel under the nose. In the tricycle concept the nose wheel is the one that you steer. Tricycle gear is used mostly on general aviation aircraft.

Skis- This is an option that can be placed on existing aircraft landing gear. The skis are just like skis that you would wear during the winter. They allow you to land a plane on snowy or icy terrain. With regular tires you could burrow your wheels into the snow possibly causing damage to the aircraft.

Floats- These are similar to skis in that they allow you to land on another surface that you would not normally be able to use. One major difference is that there aren't usually three floats. Usually there are two, one in place of each main gear leg.

Tube & Wing- This is the fuselage type that is used on most of today's commercial aircraft. The idea is that there is a tube were the passengers and crew sit and were most of the mechanics of the aircraft (other than the engines on most models) are kept. Then, attached to the tube (fuselage) are the wings, tail and other parts of the aircraft. This form can also be compared to most general aviation aircraft in one way or another.

Flying Boats- Other than the standard fuselage type there are a few others. The flying boat is also an aircraft that can land and take off from water. Not to be confused with an aircraft that has floats installed the flying boat is literally a ship with wings. Unlike other aircraft, flying boats use their hulls as landing gear. Though not very common anymore, in the early days of aviation flying boats were the most common type around. The reason? As aircraft became larger, they needed more sophisticated and lengthy runways which weren't yet available. The obvious alternative was the 75% of the planet that is the water. Also, this added an extra layer of safety for long trans-Atlantic flights because if emergencies occurred the aircraft could be ditched in the ocean and would float.

Flying Wings- While this type of aircraft hasn't really emerged in the commercial sector it has been used for some time in the military arena. The idea of merging the wing with fuselage to provide maximum lift has been a dream for some time but hopefully, somewhere in the near future, it will become a reality.

The only types of aircraft that are propelled by a single engine are small general aviation aircraft. In a single engine craft the engine is usually in the nose but, with some propeller aircraft the engines are mounted backwards in the tail. By doing this the manufacturers have utilized what is called a pusher prop , this means that it pushes, rather than pulls the airplane through the air. Some manufacturers have even combined conventional and pusher props to make a twin engine prop driven aircraft. Although most if not all of them are are single engine prop planes, there were some single engine military jets such as the Saber that were used in the early days of jet warfare.

Commonly known as twin jets this type can feature either a prop or jet engine type. There are some twin engine general aviation craft but most are owned by corporations for business travel or by tour/air taxi services. There are also some larger twin engine prop commercial aircraft as well. The most common are the twin engine jets. These make up most of the large commercial aircraft in the sky to date. They are also fairly hard to tell apart as there are usually only a few subtle differences. There are two ways that twin engines can be mounted on a jet; they can be mounted in the traditional under wing manner. Or, the engines may be placed one on either side of the fuselage near the tail like on the Boeing 717.

There are also 3 engine jets, they are called trijets. Some common trijet aircraft are the DC-10, L1011 Tri Star and the 727. Trijets like the DC-10 and Tri Star have one engine under each wing and another built into the tail. Trijets like the 727 have one engine mounted on each side of the rear fuselage and one built int the tail. A little known fact about the Boeing 747 is that during the trijet wars between Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed Boeing designers proposed a trijet version of the 747 similar to the SP variant.

The only time that four engines are used on aircraft is if it is very large, such as the Boeing 747 and the Airbus A380. Four engine jets were very common at the dawn of the jet age when jets were thirsty, inefficient machines.

Believe it or not, there is a six engine jet that exists in the world today, It is called the Antonov AN-225 Mriya. This beast has 3 engines per wing and so many wheels in its landing gear that they have to pop out of the side rather than drop from the underbelly.

Obviously one of the most important parts of an aircraft are the wings. Not only do they provide the lift to get the aircraft airborne, but they also carry a majority of the fuel for the plane. They also hold the ailerons and flaps. The ailerons are used to bank the airplane to perform a turn. The flaps slow the plane down to a safe landing speed. The wings, as with most other parts of the plane vary widely from model to model. They can have many different shapes and can have many different positions. The wing shape depends on the type of powerplant the plane uses. For example, jets have swept back wings to increase performance. While prop driven aircraft wings are more straight because they don't travel at nearly the speeds. Also, the vertical position of the wings is another variable. There are three basic positions the wings can take. Each position has advantages and disadvantages, for example, in recreational aircraft, a common problem is that the positon of the wing creates a blind spot in one area similar to the blind spot on your car. The position of the blind spot corresponds to the wing location, if the aircraft has a high wing the pilot can't see above the plane, the opposite if below. This problem has been blamed for several incidents throughout the history of aviaition. Some manufacturers have eliminated this problem by adding windows in the roof or floor of the aircraft.

High wing aircraft have, as their name suggests, wings mounted above the fuselage. Although some commercial aircraft have high wings, this orientation is mostly reserved for private aircraft. The most popular of which are probably the Cessna series. These high-winged recreational planes are great for sight seeing because the wing will not obstruct your view. Also, high wing aircraft are usually easier to land in crosswinds because the wing is so far from the ground.

This is the most common wing layout for commercial jets. What separates middle and low wing positioning is the fact that middle wing planes have their wings built into the bottom of the fuselage. This creates what are called wing boxes. This is basically a point where the round curvature of the fuselage is interrupted.

Low wings aren't quite as popular as either of the other two types. The only aircraft that I know of that use the low wing are the Piper variant of recreational aircraft. Low wing aircraft aren't very useful for sightseeing since the wings are in the way.

The tail of the airplane is also very important. It contains both the rudder and elevators. The elevators control the pitch of the airplane that is, whether the airplane is climbing or descending. The rudder controls the yaw of the airplane. Yaw is when the nose of the plane sweeps to one side without the wings dropping or rising. The tail, like the wings may also have one of several positions. The three positions, like the wings, are high, middle and low. Most aircraft with tail mounted engines or fuselage mounted engines in the aft portion of the plane have high tails. This allows for the engine to run without blasting high speed air directly onto the elevators. In order to understand how the different positions of the tail work, you need to first understand its anatomy. The tall part of the tail that sticks out of the fuselage houses the rudder. This always remains in the same place on an aircraft. The part that varies in position is known as the tailplane. This is the horizontal section that almost looks like another, very small wing. This section holds the elevators. This is the section that moves to the following positions.

As listed above, this position is most commonly used on aircraft that have tail, or fuselage mounted engines. In this layout, the tailplane is attached close to the top of the vertical fin.

This is probably the least common of three types. In this layout, the tailplane is situated right in the middle of the vertical stabilizer. I'm not exactly sure why this orientation is used.

This is by far the most common of the three. In this positioning, the tailplane is attached to the fuselage, rather then to the vertical part of the tail. This type of tailplane can always be implemented as long as the airframe does not use tail-mounted engines. This is part of the reason that this type is the most common.

Anyone who has ever seen the movie Airplane! knows that the cockpit is "The room at the front of the plane where the pilot sits". But the cockpit is much more than that. The cockpit is the nerve center for the aircraft. Everything from control of direction and speed to whether or not the seat belt sign is lit is all controlled from this small room at the front of the plane. Read on to educate yourself about one of the most important parts of an aircraft.

The cockpit has come a long way since the first controlled flight by the Wright Brothers way back in 1903. In the Wright Flyer there really wasn't much of a cockpit. The pilot would lay face down in a cradle that he could move left or right to bank the aircraft. In earlier models he also had foot pedals to control the rudder. As time went on and commercial flight began to grow, aircraft cockpits evolved. Now there was a yoke to control pitch and banking, and foot pedals to control yaw and braking. The "dashboard" if you will, also became much more cluttered with instruments.

If you have ever seen the cockpit of an aircraft, particularly those that are 40 or more years old you were probably astounded by the huge assortment of knobs, gauges, switches and other indicators. Although these large collections of readouts were once commonplace, today they have been widely done away with. Replaced by a few computer screens, also known as the "Glass Cockpit". But before we talk about the glass cockpit idea, let's go back to the days of analog gauges. Back when there was so much to do that it took three men to fly the plane, rather than just two as is found today. This third man was known as the flight engineer, he mostly oversaw fuel and engine control. While the number and type of gauges and controls vary from aircraft to aircraft depending on manufacturer, number of engines etc., there are a few core ones found in each and every cockpit.

Altimeter- The altimeter is a device used to measure and display the current altitude of the aircraft above the ground. This is obviously a very important part for safe operation of an aircraft. The analog altimeter has two "hands" and looks a lot like a clock. The long hand indicates how many thousands of feet the aircraft is up in the air, while the little hand displays the hundreds of feet.

Attitude Indicator- The attitude indicator A.K.A the artificial horizon is very useful while flying. It can serve as a very undetailed version of both the vertical speed indicator and the turn coordinator. This piece of equipment shows a very rough design of an aircraft against an artificial sky and ground. There are lines both above and below the horizon line that show the rate of climb or descent. The aircraft representation also has the ability to bank as the aircraft does.

Heading Indicator- The heading indicator is basically a compass with a few upgrades. First, instead of an arrow pointing north, there is a small top-down silhouette of an airplane facing the direction you are going.

Turn Coordinator- The turn coordinator has two main purposes. First, it helps the pilot to keep the aircraft at a constant bank angle throughout the turn. It also helps him or her to make coordinated turns. A coordinated turn is when the aircraft turns smoothly and doesn't slip, or skid. By combining the yoke to bank the aircraft and the rudder to keep the plane from skidding, you can successfully execute a coordinated turn. The indicator has two parts. The first is a cutout of an airplane as seen from the back. This piece is attached so that it banks with the airplane. This shows how much bank the aircraft currently has. The second part is a small ball in a tube. If the aircraft begins to slip, the ball will slide to the side of the tube facing the inside of the turn. The opposite goes for a skid.

Vertical Speed Indicator- The vertical speed indicator, as its name suggests, tells the pilot the rate at which the aircraft is ascending or descending in feet per minute.

The glass cockpit makes flying an aircraft much easier. Mostly because, instead of being bombarded with hundreds of displays and controls, the pilots have all the information they need shown to them on a few computer screens. Although, even with all this technology, parts are prone to failure. For this reason, there are always a few backup analog gauges in case the computers malfunction. The two main computer displays are known as the primary and secondary flight displays. Data such as the altitude and speed of an aircraft may be displayed as moving tapes on the sides of the primary display with a virtual representation of the attitude indicator in the center. The secondary display could show a compass or the heading indicator. On most glass cockpits, each screen has a few pages of data which the pilot can flip through with a knob or a switch. The primary and secondary displays aren't the only ones in the cockpit, however. On many occasions there may be a display on the center for engine information or radio frequencies. Many next generation aircraft are being built so that the pilot is surrounded with displays on nearly every side. The glass cockpit has definitely, and will continue to change the look and feel of the modern cockpit.

If you've ever sat and watched aircraft of any type take off and land, you probably noticed the numbers and letters near the tail of the aircraft. These are known as the registration numbers or tail numbers of the aircraft. In the U.S the format of the registration is the letter N then a few numbers and then

Airports are the most important part of the modern air transportation system. They connect passengers with aircraft. They provide safe havens for planes during inclement weather. Without airports, we wouldn't have the aerospace industry. Obviously, there is a lot happening on the grounds of an airport at any given time, so next time your flying. Look out the terminal window and watch the baggage carts scurry around and the aircraft land, takeoff and do everything in-between.

We are all familiar with the basic parts of an airport terminal. The baggage claim, check-in counters, security checkpoints and gates among other things. But this is only half the story. What happens to your bag after you watch it go through the wall behind the check-in desk? What's behind the doors marked "Authorized Personnel Only"? This is where it all happens. Before I continue, it is important that you know the following. The part of the airport terminal that the passengers use is split into two parts. The part of the terminal before security checkpoints is known as the landside of the terminal. Likewise, the side after security is known as the airside.

The landside of the airport is everything from the moment you set foot in the terminal, to when you collect your belongings from the security checkpoint. There may be some shops and restaurants on the landside of the airport, but not nearly as many as once you have passed through security. The landside is usually much smaller than the rest of the terminal. The main parts of the landside are the check-in counters and the security check. The baggage claim is also usually located on the landside of the terminal.

This is where all of the action is. The airside is where the gates, a majority of the shops and the baggage sorting takes place. Once you pass through the security checkpoint, you have entered the airside of the terminal. This is the secure part of the terminal. From here, we know that you go off to find your gate, maybe grabbing a snack along the way. But where is your baggage? Your bags are riding along on an assortment of conveyor belts. The tags that were put on it at check-in guide it through the system to your gate. Your baggage, like you, also has to go through a security check. ...

The time from when an aircraft locks into the gate is a scramble to get it back in the air making more money. Because of this time crunch, all the servicing of different systems must be done simultaneously. Grounds crews have a lot of work to do from the moment the engines shut down to power up and pushback. Unloading the lav tanks and baggage, loading potable water, food and fuel and cleaning the passenger cabin are a few of the things that must be done before takeoff. An aircraft is designed to allow access to the proper receptacles for these things all at the same time. The ability of the grounds and cabin crews to complete these jobs in a timely manner all affect the aircrafts turn around time (the time from when the aircraft arrives at the gate to when it pushes back.

While majestic creatures in the air, aircraft are slow and clumsy on the ground. To get aircraft from the runway to the gate, a complex system must be put in place. This system not only moves the aircraft from point A to point B, it also keeps them from colliding with each other.

If you drive down the highway you will notice signs identifying each exit and telling you what can be found on that exit. You will also see markings on the road itself, separating lanes of traffic both moving in the same and opposite directions. The same idea must be applied to the grounds of airports.