User:Steelpillow/Aircraft
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Many different kinds of lifting surface have been fitted to aircraft. This page provides a breakdown of the various categorisations.
Contents |
[edit] General categories
The major classes of wing type, further subdivided below, are:
Other unconventional wing types include:
- A lifting body has no wings, and relies on lift generated by airflow across the fuselage
- A compound rotorcraft has both fixed and rotary wings
- The fan wing has a cylindrical rotor with a horizontal axis, mounted above a fixed wing
[edit] Rotary wings
A rotary wing is often called a rotor.
- Single rotor
- Twin rotor
- In line
- Side by side
- Co-axial
- Multiple rotor
Where a rotorcraft has two or more rotors, the rotors may or may not intermesh.
[edit] Fixed wings
fixed wing aircraft are by far the most varied, and the wing configuration may be varied in several different ways.
[edit] Number of planes
A fixed wing aircraft may have more than one wing plane, stacked one above another:
- Monoplane - One plane:
- Low wing - Fixed to the lower fuselage
- Mid wing - Fixed approximately half way up the fuselage
- High wing - Fixed to the upper fuselage
- Parasol wing - Mounted on struts above the fuselage
- Biplane - Two planes of approximately equal size
- Sesquiplane - A small plane below the main plane
- Triplane - Three planes
- Quadruplane - Four planes
- Multiplane - Many planes
