Airplane

An airplane, also known as an aeroplane or just plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft. It moves by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in many shapes and sizes. The use of aircraft is called aviation. Airplanes are used for many things including recreation, transportation of goods and people, military, and research.

They can move much faster than road (such as cars, buses, motorcycles, off-road vehicles, light trucks, medium trucks and heavy trucks), rail (such as trains or trams) or sea transport (such as boats, ships, and submarines), and so they are often the choice for long distances. Many long distance airplanes are bigger than others because they need to carry more fuel.

Commercial aviation transports more than four billion passengers annually on airliners. Cargo aircraft carry more than 200 billion ton kilometres of cargo every year, which is less than 1% of the world's cargo movement. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are airplanes made to be remotely or computer-controlled such as drones.

Airplanes fly between many cities all over the world, carrying people and cargo. Big cities usually have an international airport, where large airplanes can land and take off safely. Some large cities like New York City and London have more than one airport. Two major makers of airplanes are Airbus and Boeing.

Statistics show that riding in a plane is safer than driving in a car.^[1]

1. ↑ Bailey, Joanna; Hardiman, Jake; Pickett, Riley (2022-09-08). "How Flying Today Is Safer Than At Any Time In The Past". Simple Flying. Retrieved 2023-07-24. According to research by Harvard University, flying in the US, Europe, and Australia is actually significantly safer than driving a car. Your odds of being in an accident during a flight is one in 1.2 million, and the chances of that accident being fatal are one in 11 million. Your chances of dying in a car crash, conversely, are one in 5,000.