Fred Morgan
The First Airplanes
Long ago, people dreamed of flying like the birds. They tried to build machines that would fly. The first people to succeed were two American brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright. They made a heavier-than-air machine of wood and cloth. It had an engine that turned a propeller. The brothers made their first flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903.
The Wright brothers and other inventors experimented with different designs. They made better and better planes. The first warplanes flew during World War I (1914-1918). Then, pilots started taking passengers on trips. Jet engines in the 1950s made air travel faster and made passenger planes very popular. Now, millions of people travel everywhere on airplanes.
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The Work of Airplanes
Planes do different kinds of work.
- Passenger planes carry people in the cabin.
- Cargo planes carry packages, boxes, and other things. Cargo planes do not have seats.
- Military cargo planes can carry soldiers, tanks, and cannons.
- Crop-duster planes spray farm fields with chemicals that kill bugs or fertilizer that helps crops grow.
- Firefighting planes drop water or chemicals on forest fires.
- Seaplanes have skis instead of wheels. They can land on lakes in faraway places to deliver passengers, supplies, and mail.
Parts of An Airplane
The place where you sit is called the cabin. The cabin is in a long tube called the body, or fuselage, of the airplane. The front of the fuselage is called the nose. The pilot and copilot sit in the cockpit right behind the nose. The pilot steers the plane in the cockpit. Your suitcase is stowed in the cargo hold under the cabin.
Two big wings stick out from the fuselage. In back of the wings are movable parts called flaps and ailerons. These parts help control the plane. A big tail sticks up from the end of the fuselage. A rudder, located on the back of the tail, helps the plane turn left and right.
Sets of wheels sit underneath the airplane. The airplane rolls on the wheels before it takes off and after it lands. The wheels on big planes go up into the fuselage when the plane is in the air. They come down before the plane lands.
Airplane Engines
There are different kinds of airplane engines. Propeller engines turn propellers on the nose or on the wings. Propellers pull an airplane through the air.
Jet engines suck air in. They heat the air and shoot it out of the back of the engine. Jet engines push the plane through the air. Turboprops are a combination, using the power of a jet engine to turn a propeller.
Flying A Plane
The pilot uses many controls in the cockpit to fly a plane. The pilot pulls a wheel or stick back to make the plane go up. Air rushing over and under the wings lifts the plane into the sky.
Dials on a control panel in the cockpit tell the pilot how high the plane is, how much fuel it has, and which direction it is heading. A radar screen tells the pilot if other planes are nearby. The pilot uses the rudder on the tail and the ailerons on the wings to make the plane turn.
How Planes Take Off
Airplanes are heavier than air. They need to go fast in order to fly. Engines and wings make a plane fly. An airplane builds up speed on a runway. Runways at airports are long concrete strips. Runways in some faraway places can be level places made of dirt or grass. Some planes can even take off on water. When the plane is going fast enough, the pilot takes it up into the air.
How Planes Land
It’s time to land. The pilot pushes the wheel or stick forward to make the plane go down. The pilot lowers the wheels and landing gear. The plane touches down on the runway. The pilot uses brakes to slow and stop the plane.
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