Talk:Aircraft
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Proposal for categories for Aircraft:
Aircraft:
- Technology
- Propulsion
- Piston-driven
- Jet
- (Pointer to Physics/Aerodynamics)
- Propulsion
- History
- Planes
- Producer1 (eg. Messerschmitt)
- TypeA (eg. Me-109)
- SubtypeAlpha (eg. Bf-109Getceteraadinfinitum)
- SubtypeBeta
- TypeB
- TypeA (eg. Me-109)
- Producer1
- TypeA
- TypeB
- Producer1 (eg. Messerschmitt)
(Why are there question marks after the types and subtypes?)
- I think that's a Wikipedia link id'er, that assumes anything with lower-case followed by upper case is a link. Given the intended change to names with spaces, this "feature" needs to be disabled. --Belltower
I'm surprised that lighter-than-airs are considered 'Aircraft'; they should be forked off early, nearly everything about them is different.
Embrace and Extend. --Yooden
(There are question marks becasue the words have two capital letters and therefore become subject to the autolinking rule which is a remnant from earlier wiki implementations).
Aircraft is a more general term than airplane.
In my mind what Yooden presents is really an airplane classification; lighter-than-air craft are aircraft and so deserve a place here. I would divide aircraft (by means of lift generation) into:
- lighter than air
- aerodynamic aircraft
- helicopter
- airplane
- glider
- powered airplane
- rockets
and probably not say much more than that here, everything else should go in a place of its own.
(The Space Shuttle is interesting as it takes off using a rocket, but lands by gliding. Also, is a parachute an aircraft? What about a parascender?)--drj
- IMO, an aircraft has to have a wing, and therefore the parascenter, using the parachute as a wing qualifies, where a balloon or standard parachute would not.--mike dill
IMHO this is the place to do the categorizitaion(sp!); there's not much above aircraft. So we have:
Aircraft:
- History
- Early Years
- WWI
- WWII
- After WWII
- Lighter-than-Air
- Technology
- Dirigibles
- Technology
- Zeppelins
- Non-Rigids
- Balloons
- Fixed-Wings Aircrafts
- Technology
- Propulsion
- Piston-driven
- Turbine
- Jet
- Rockets
- (Pointer to Physics/Aerodynamics)
- Rotary-Wings Aircrafts
- Technology
- (Pointer to Physics/Aerodynamics)
- Propulsion
- Turbine
- Technology
- Misc. Aircrafts (all Pointers?)
- Ballistic Missiles
- Parachute/Paraglider
- Ekranoplanes
- Hovercrafts
- Individual Crafts
- Producer1 (eg. Messerschmitt)
- TypeA (eg. Me-109)
- SubtypeAlpha (eg. Bf-109Getceteraadinfinitum)
- TypeA (eg. Me-109)
- Producer1 (eg. Messerschmitt)
An aircraft is a craft of the air. Balloons and paragliders certainly qualify as aircraft, as do blimps and dirigibles, even though they don't have wings.
If it has fixed wings and an engine, it is an airplane. With fixed wings and no engine, it is a glider (most, but not all are also called sailplanes).
If it has a rotary wing, it is either a helicopter or an autogyro. If the rotor is also the source of thrust, it is a helicopter. If the rotor is unpowered and another form of thrust is provided (typically a propeller), it is an autogyro.
While we're at it, let's not forget the ultralight aircraft, and the amateur built (homebuilt) aircraft, which are certified in the experimental category.
Is there a need for categories talking about the different kinds of airspace? For IFR vs. VFR flying?
Is there a need to discuss different categories of pilot licenses?
How about types of charts used for navigation?
Perhaps something about aviation organizations, such as the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association.
Suggestion: a glossary page, probably List of Aerospace terms, linked to from "Aircraft", "Aerospace engineering" and others. To contain short definitions of appropriate terms (e.g. aerostat, glider, VTOL, sesquiplane), linked to pages with longer articles as required. Rcingham
What the hell happened with the Aeroplane page!? An aeroplane is a specific type of aircraft, it should have its own page and it should be at aeroplane and not airplane. Even the Wright brothers used the word Aeroplane. Airplane is a stupidism. Mintguy
- Looking into this it appears the the word airplane only started to used in the US after WWI. (Webster says it first appeared in 1907). Aeroplane (or flying machine) appears in all the documents relating to the early pioneers of flight. Airplane was coined by people who either mis-heard, or simply couldn't spell aeroplane. Mintguy
- "Aeroplane" is still the accepted terminology for those of us who speak English, as opposed to American! Gene Poole
- It doesn't matter how the spelling came about - right now in the US airplane is the correct spelling. It is not a stupidism! IMO there isn't enough difference between an aeorplane and an aircraft to warrent a separate article until this article gets too long. Then the aeroplane-specific information can be summarized here and the detail moved to its own article.
aeroplane
an aircraft that has a fixed wing and is powered by
propellers or jets; "the flight was delayed due to
trouble with the airplane" [syn: airplane, plane]
Aircraft \Air"craft`\, n. sing. & pl. Any device, as a balloon, a["e]roplane, etc., for floating in, or flying through, the air.
-- mav
A note from a user who can get pretty fanatical about correct English (see my edit history), and who, generally speaking, avoids Americanisims like the plague. There was an article at aeroplane which kept getting renamed to airplane and back again. "Airplane" is indeed a horrible ugly word which ought not be part of the language. Unfortunately, it is a part of the language, and American English has every bit as much right to be used here as any other dialect. The rule of thumb I use is to, wherever possible, avoid using either term in favour of the uncontroversial term "aircraft". Where that is not possible (because "aircraft" has a broader meaning than aeroplane/airplane and can sometimes be confusing), then it is best to use the correct international term "aeroplane", unless the aircraft in question is American, in which case I grind my teeth together, pray forgiveness, and write out the word "airplane". Sometimes it makes more sense to look at other contextual clues to correct usage: for example, in writing about the use of the (American) DC-3 in the New Zealand airline industry, one should say "aeroplane", or if describing the (British) B-57 Canberra bomber in US service, "airplane" is preffered. If in doubt, use the term that you think the aircrew would have used themselves. (Errr ... Would have used in polite company, I mean. No need for "clapped out old slug"!) There seems to be a rough, informal consensus here among the aircraft enthausiasts that this is a good way to work. Tannin 06:50 Jan 23, 2003 (UTC)
I believe that the classification for the lighter-than-air types repeats the common mistake of treating the term 'dirigible' as limited to rigid airships. In fact, it is synonymous with 'airship' -- all types. (Actually, the word comes from the French term for steerable which is the functional distinction between airships and balloons.)
I propose to rework the classification of lighter-than-air to be
- Lighter-than-Air
- airships (aka dirigible)
- rigid
- Zeppelin (manufacturer of note)
- non-rigids (aka blimp)
- semi-rigid
- hybrid
- rigid
- Balloons
- gas balloon
- hot air balloon
- airships (aka dirigible)
and to make other minor changes to the text to reflect this classification. These changes are already reflected in the glossary and in the related articles.
Blimpguy 01:15 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)
The article doesn't explain the terms aerodyne and aerostat (sp?); I guess maybe the difference is analogous to the difference between dynamic and static stability in control theory? -- the dynamic version only achieves lift dynamically, but the latter version has lift statically, or intrinsically? Pagan 09:50, 30 Dec 2003 (UTC)
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