Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. Common examples of aircraft include airplanes, helicopters, airships (including blimps), gliders, paramotors and hot air balloons. The human activity that surrounds aircraft is called aviation. The science of aviation, including designing and building aircraft, is called aeronautics. Crewed aircraft are flown by an onboard pilot, but unmanned aerial vehicles may be remotely controlled or self-controlled by onboard computers. Aircraft may be classified by different criteria, such as lift type, propulsion, usage and others. Aircraft Sizes The smallest aircraft are toys, and even smaller, nano-airplane. The largest airplane by dimensions and volume (as of 2016) is the 302-foot-long (about 95 meters) British Airlander 10, a hybrid blimp, with helicopter and fixed-wing features, and reportedly capable of speeds up to 90 mph (about 150 km/h) The largest airplane by weight and largest regular fixed-wing airplane ever built, as of 2016, is the Antonov An-225 Mriya. That Ukrainian-built six-engine Russian transport of the 1980s is 84 meters long, with an 88-meter wingspan. It holds the world payload record, after transporting 428,834 pounds (200 tons) of goods The largest military airplanes are The Ukrainian/Russian Antonov An-124 Ruslan American Lockheed C-5 Galaxytransport, weighing, loaded, over 765,000 pounds (over 380 tons) The 8-engine, piston/propeller Hughes H-4 Hercules"Spruce Goose" — an American World War II wooden flying boat transport The largest civilian airplanes, apart from the above-noted An-225 and An-124, are as follow the Airbus Belugacargo transport derivative of the Airbus A300 jet airliner the Boeing Dreamliftercargo transport derivative of the Boeing 747 jet airliner/transport the double-decker Airbus A380"super-jumbo" jet airliner (the world's largest passenger airliner)