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 vast area 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.

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.