Fixed-wing aircraft

Fixed-wing aircraft is a term used to refer to what are more commonly known as aeroplanes in Commonwealth English (excluding Canada) or airplanes in North American English. This term can refer to a large range of craft designed for many purposes, ranging from large commercial aircraft, known as airliners, to military aircraft of various categories, cargo aircraft, and so on.

Related Topics:
Commonwealth English - North American English - Airliner - Military aircraft - Cargo aircraft

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Fixed-wing aircraft include monoplanes, biplanes and triplanes; in fact all conventional aircraft that are neither balloons, airships, autogyros, helicopters or tiltrotors are fixed-wing aircraft.

Related Topics:
Monoplane - Biplanes - Triplanes - Aircraft - Balloons - Airship - Autogyro - Helicopter - Tiltrotor

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The term also embraces a minority of aircraft with folding wings that are intended to fold when on the ground. This is usually in order to to ease stowage 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 an even smaller number of aircraft, such as the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, Grumman F-14 Tomcat and the Panavia Tornado, which can vary the sweep angle of their wings during flight. In the early days of their development, these were termed "variable geometry" aircraft. When the wings of these aircraft are fully swept, usually for high speed cruise, the trailing edges of their wings abut the leading edges of their tailplanes, giving an impression of a single delta wing if viewed from above or below. 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".

Related Topics:
Aircraft - Aircraft carrier - General Dynamics - F-111 Aardvark - Grumman - F-14 Tomcat - Panavia - Tornado - Sweep angle - Delta wing - Angle of incidence - F-8 Crusader

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