Birds could fly; man wanted to. This desire to launch our bi-pedal forms into the skies led to centuries of scientists and dreamers trying to find out exactly how those birds managed such a seemingly effortless feat. It wasn’t until 1903 that the Wright brothers succeeded in building the first self-powered, fixed-wing airplane. Its first flight lasted a mere 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Since then man has created planes that fly faster and farther, but the basic parts of an airplane, and how they work, remain pretty much the same.


Wings are the key to flight. Take away the engine, and you have a glider, which, once towed into the sky by another plane, catches the air currents and stays aloft quite nicely. Wings are designed with a thicker rounded edge along the front that tapers to a point across the back. Looking at the wing from the side, the bottom is fairly flat, while the top is curved. The air flowing over the top of the wing creates an area of low pressure, which pulls the plane into the air, creating lift. Flaps, found on the back of the wings, are controlled by the pilot to either increase the lift or to slow the plane down. Early airplane wings were made of light wood and fabric, while today’s plane wings are usually made of metal. Sometimes, wings also hold the plane’s fuel tanks.

Fuselage -- The Cockpit

The fuselage is the long tube-shaped structure that holds the pilot, crew, passengers and cargo. The cockpit, in the front, is where the pilot sits and controls the plane. A mass of dials and switches keeps track of all the plane's systems; among them are altitude, how high you are flying; your compass reading, where exactly you are in the sky; and a gauge that measures fuel consumption. The yoke, sort of an odd-looking steering wheel, along with the rudder pedals on the floor of the plane, are the main controls. The yoke steers the plane up or down and keeps the plane flying level, also known as attitude. On small planes, the yoke is manually controlled by the pilot; it feels like manipulating a car steering wheel, but without the power steering. The rudders help with turning the plane. Larger planes use hydraulics to help the pilot control the craft.

Fuselage -- Cabin

The section in back of the cockpit is the cabin; on small planes, like the Cessna 172 Skyhawk ( or the Piper Cub (, the cabin and cockpit are all in one unit. On larger planes, including commercial jets, these two sections of the plane are separated. Commercial jets usually have cabins with first-class and coach sections; first class has wider seats and more services than coach. Business class, a sort of hybrid between the two classes, is between the two on some flights. In the Boeing 747 (, the cabin has two floors; the first class section is upstairs. The cabin also houses the restrooms, galleys, or kitchens, and seating for the flight attendants. Each passenger seat offers emergency oxygen masks and call buttons for the attendants.

Tail Section

The tail section of a plane not only provides balance, it helps to steer the plane. Tails have two small horizontal pieces that look like mini-wings and a vertical fin. On the horizontal pieces are the elevators, small flaps controlled by the yoke in the cockpit. If the elevator points up, the nose of the plane goes up; if they point down, the plane also noses downward. An elevator pointing straight back keeps the plane in level flight. The outer edge of the vertical fin holds the rudder, and if the pilot pushes the left rudder pedal, the rudder moves left, while the plane turns right. Pressing the right rudder pedal has the opposite effect.

Undercarriage -- Landing Gear

A plane's landing gear must be strong enough to absorb the stresses of take-offs and landings. Small planes usually have one of two types of landing gear. Conventional landing gear, in which two wheels are toward the front of the aircraft and a tiny third wheel is under the base of the tail, is the most basic. A tricycle landing gear system, which has two main wheels and another wheel under the nose of the plane, makes the plane easier to control. Large aircraft use tandem landing gear, pairs of landing wheels that sit under the plane’s fuselage. As an example, a Boeing 747 has 16 main landing wheels and two additional nose wheels. In the larger planes, as well as on some small craft, the landing gear is retracted into the fuselage during flight, which makes the plane more aerodynamic.

The Engine

Birds flap their wings to create lift, but since airplane wings are fixed in place, the lift comes from the engine, usually found in the front of the plane or on the wings. Single engine craft like the Cessna 172 Skyhawk have one engine in front of the cockpit. The pilot can usually see the tip of the propeller blade, the spinning propeller that makes the plane move forward, through the windshield. At a certain point the plane is moving fast enough that the wings attain lift, and the plane leaves the ground. Twin engine planes have one engine on each wing, while passenger jets, depending on their size, could have one or two engines on each wing. In the case of the Lockheed L-1011, now retired, the plane had one engine on the tail and one on each wing. Jet engines, which have no propellers, use the oxygen in the air combined with a fuel source to create lift. The oxygen is sucked into the front of the engine and pushed out the rear, propelling the plane forward.

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