If you’ve ever wondered…

• What are the main parts of an airplane?

• What’s a fuselage?
• What makes an airplane fly?
• How do aircraft wings work?
• How is a plane controlled?
• What is the instrument panel?

…then this guide is for you!

Here you’ll find answers to these questions, experiments to

show you how aircraft wings work, and puzzles.

If you want to learn more about aviation, check out the resource list inside,
stop by your local library, or check out the Internet.

Have fun!
Provided by: AOPA • 421 Aviation Way • Frederick, MD 21701-4798
www.aopa.org
 The Main Parts of an Airplane
1. Propeller 10. Rudder
2. Landing Gear 11. Elevator
3. Wing Strut 12. Left Wing Flap
4. Wing 13. Left Wing Aileron
5. Right Wing Aileron 14. Door
6. Right Wing Flap 15. Seat
7. Fuselage 16. Windshield
8. Horizontal Stabilizer 17. Engine Cowl
9. Fin and Dorsal

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 The Main Parts of an Airplane – Definitions
Airplane – An airplane is a vehicle heavier than air, powered by an engine, which travels
through the air via the forces of lift and thrust.

Fuselage – The fuselage is the central body portion of an airplane, designed to accommodate
the pilot/crew and the passengers and/or cargo.

Cockpit – In general aviation airplanes (all except those operated by airlines and the military)
the cockpit is usually the space in the fuselage for the pilot and passengers; in some aircraft it
is just the pilot’s compartment.

Propeller – A propeller is a rotating blade on the front of the airplane. The engine turns
the propeller, which pulls the airplane through the air.

Wings – Wings are the parts of airplanes that provide lift and support the entire weight of
the aircraft and its contents while in flight.

Flaps – Flaps are the movable sections of an airplane’s wings that are closest to the fuselage.
They move in the same direction on both wings at the same time, and enable the airplane to
fly more slowly.

Ailerons – Ailerons are the outward movable sections of an airplane’s wings. They move in
opposite directions (if one goes up, the other goes down). They are used in making turns,
and they control movement around the longitudinal axis (imagine a line through the airplane
from the nose to the tail).

Rudder – The rudder is the movable vertical section of the tail that controls lateral
(side-to-side) movement. When the rudder moves one direction, the aircraft nose moves
the same direction, while the tail moves in the opposite direction.

Horizontal Stabilizer – The horizontal stabilizer is the horizontal surface at the rear of
the fuselage designed to balance the airplane.

Elevator – The elevator is the movable horizontal section of the tail that causes the plane
to move up and down. When the elevator moves one direction, the nose moves in the same
direction.

Landing Gear – A landing gear is underneath the airplane and supports it while on the
ground. A landing gear usually includes a wheel and tire.

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 Instrument Panel

1. Airspeed Indicator 13. Tachometer (measures revolutions per

2. Gyroscopic compass minute of propeller)
3. Artificial horizon 14. Battery–generator indicator
4. Altimeter 15. Clock
5. Turn-and-bank indicator 16. Control wheel (dual)
6. Vertical speed (rate-of-climb/descent indicator) 17. Rudder pedals and brakes
7. VHF navigation–communication radio 18. Carburetor heat control
8. Fuel Gauge (left tank) 19. Throttle control
9. Oil pressure gauge 20. Fuel-air mixture control
10. Oil temperature gauge 21. Wing flaps control
11. Fuel gauge (right tank) 22. Trim tab control
12. Suction indicator (monitors vacuum pump, 23. Magnetic compass
that activates flight instruments) 24. GPS Satellite Navigation Receiver

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 What Makes an Airplane Fly?

An airplane’s movement through the air is affected by the four forces of flight:

Lift – air flowing

over the wings
and the angle of
the wing into
the air together
move the aircraft
upward.

Drag – a force that

slows the forward Thrust – a force
movement of the created by the
airplane through the engine that moves
air. The shape of the the airplane forward.
airplane causes drag.

Gravity – a force
pulling down on
the airplane; it’s
the same force
that keeps you on
the earth.

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 How is a Plane Controlled?
To control which way a plane turns and moves in the air and on the ground, a pilot moves parts on
the wings and tail called control surfaces. The control surfaces are the ailerons, rudder, and
elevator. You can see these in action by using folded paper gliders and balsa gliders.

EQUIPMENT: a sheet of paper and a paper clip

DESCRIPTION
Folded paper glider: Fold a piece of paper following the diagram A.You can use a paper clip to
hold together the finished glider at the bottom. You can also use the paper clip for a balance on
the airplane. Experiment with the glider, moving the clip up or back as needed to get it in balance.

fold here

1 2 fold here 3

fold here
4 5

Diagram A

Control Surfaces: Real planes have movable parts inserted in the wings, in the vertical stabilizer,
and in the horizontal stabilizer. These are called ailerons, rudder, and elevator. The pilot controls
their position from the airplane cockpit.When he or she moves them into the airstream, they
cause the plane to react to air pressure. By using them he can go to the right or left and also up
and down.

Up and Down: Fold the back edges of the paper glider up, as in the diagram B. When you throw
the glider, the tail should go down and the nose should point up. It may take some practice to get
the controls set so the glider does what you want it to do.

When the pilot wants her plane to climb, she moves the airplane controls so that the elevators
tilt up in the same way that you folded the back edges of the glider. The air hitting the elevators
pushes the tail of the plane down, tilting the nose upward, so that the plane can climb.

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Next, fold the back edges of the glider down. When you throw the glider, the tail should go up and
the nose should go down. This same thing happens when the pilot tilts the elevators downward.

Up

Down

Diagram B

Right and Left: Turn the vertical fin on the glider a little to the right. This will make the glider fly
toward the right (Diagram C). The pilot moves the airplane’s rudder to the right for a right turn,
but he must also bank his plane for the turn, the same as you would do if you were turning on a
bicycle. (You would lean to the right for a right turn.)

The pilot tilts her plane to one side by using the ailerons. When one tilts up the other tilts down.
To tilt the plane to the right, the pilot tilts the left aileron down so the left wing is pushed up. The
right aileron is tilted up so the right wing will be pushed down. You can do the same thing with a
paper glider. For a left turn, the pilot reverses the process described above.

Balsa glider: You can also use a balsa glider to see how control surfaces affect an airplane. Put
the glider together and launch it a few times for practice. Make ailerons, elevators, and rudder
from paper and glue them to the wings and stabilizers. Now practice bending these paper control
surfaces until you can make the glider fly where you want it to.

Left

Diagram C

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 Wings
Experiments to demonstrate how aircraft wings work
The force that lifts an airplane and holds it up comes in part from the air that flows swiftly
over and under its wings.

Bernoulli’s principle states that an increase in the velocity of any fluid is always
accompanied by a decrease in pressure. Air is a fluid. If you can cause the air to move
rapidly on one side of a surface, the pressure on that side of the surface is less than that
on its other side.

Bernoulli’s principle works with an airplane wing. In motion, air hits the leading edge
(front edge) of the wing. Some of the air moves under the wing, and some of it goes over
the top. The air moving over the top of the curved wing must travel farther to reach the
back of the wing, so it must travel faster than the air moving under the wing to reach the
trailing edge (back edge) at the same time. Therefore the air pressure on top of the wing is
less than that on the bottom of the wing.

You can see Bernoulli’s principle in action in an experiment with two strips of paper.

EQUIPMENT: Strip of notebook paper or newspaper, about 2 inches wide and 10 inches
long; a book; and paper clips

Make an airfoil (wing) by placing one end of the strip of paper between the pages of the
book so that the other end hangs over the top of the book. Move the book swiftly through
the air, or blow across the top of the strip of paper. It flutters upward. Hold the book in
the breeze of an electric fan so the air blows over the top of the paper.

Take the strip of paper out of the book. Grasp one end of the paper and set it against your
chin, just below your mouth. Hold it in place with your thumb and blow over the top of the
strip. The paper rises. Try the same thing after you have fastened a paper clip on the end of
the strip. See how many paper clips you can lift in this way.

Hold the strip of paper in your hands and run around the room. It doesn’t matter whether
you move the air over the strip of paper by blowing or whether you move the paper rapidly
through the air - either way it rises.

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 Parts of an Airplane
Word Find

B C O P D Q Q W V F X V L H Find these words:

U A P V R I R K M L Z Y A M ❏ Propeller
T S N H J O E F V A G A N H
W G C O C K P I T P N Q D G ❏ Cockpit
F R M S P T S E P S Z O I I ❏ Fuselage
X L K R F U S E L A G E N J
Y A I L E R O N S L U F G K ❏ Ailerons
E Z J N O W V E L Q E Y G J ❏ Rudder
R U D D E R D R P A L R E D
H I Q N T U O C B I A I A E ❏ Elevator
G F A V E T O O C R B C R K ❏ Wings
B D X W A H N W D P X M F I
Z Y C V I T S I H L L G J L ❏ Airplane
M A E F G R R N Q A P O P M ❏ Flaps
B L D E X A S G I N K L N J
❏ Landing Gear
E C W Y U T Z S J E K L B K

K B L K E J S Z T U Y W C E
J N L K N I G S A X E D L B
M P O P A Q N R R G F E A M
L J G L L H I S T I V C Y Z
I F M X P D W N H A W X D B
K R C B R C O O T E V A F G
E A I A I B C O U T N Q I H
D E R L A P R D R E D D U R
J G Y E Q L E V W O N J Z E
K G F U L S N O R E L I A Y
J N E G A L E S U F R K L X
I I O Z S P E S T P S M R F
G D Q N P T I P K C O C G W
H N A G A V F E O J H N S T
M A Y Z L M K R I R V P A U
H L V X F V W Q Q D P O C B
Answer key:

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 Historical Aircraft Connect-the-Dot Puzzles
The Wright Flyer
The Wright Brothers’
1903 Flyer was a
marvel of wood, wire
and fabric.The Flyer’s
wings spanned 40’ 4”
and it was powered by
a 12-horsepower,
140-pound engine. In
flight, the pilot lay on
the lower wing.The
Wright Flyer flew just
four times–a total of 98
seconds–all on
December 17, 1903.
Later that day, it was
damaged by high winds
and never again flown.

Beechcraft
The Beech 18 was first flown in January of 1937 and became a standard for business aviation aircraft.The
original Beech 18s had a cruise speed of 196 miles per hour and a range of just over 1,000 miles. It cost about
$30,000.The last Beech 18 rolled out of the factory on November 26, 1969. It was a Beechcraft Super H18
model, had a cruise speed of 220 miles per hour, a range of just over 1,500 miles, and cost around $180,000.

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 Some Web sites, books, and videos to try
AOPA assumes no responsibility for availability or content of items listed.
Web sites
www.aopa.org Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association – thousands of pages of
information from the world’s largest civil aviation organization
www.aopaflighttraining.org AOPA Flight Training magazine –for new and student pilots
www.nasa.gov/kids.html National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s pages and links for young
people
www.avkids.com National Business Aviation Association “AvKids” program
www.faa.gov/education Federal Aviation Administration: “designed to help bring the excitement
and opportunities of aviation to young minds everywhere.”
www.aviationeducation.org National Coalition for Aviation Education – links to hundreds of free
materials
http://education.dot.gov/ U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) - information about careers in
transportation
Books
Aviation and Space Dr. Ben Millspaugh McGraw-Hill, 1992 ISBN 0-8306-2156-3
Science Projects
Flights of Imagination Wayne Hosking National Science ISBN 0-87355-067-6
Teachers Association
Skybusters –Sixteen Campbell Morris Scholastic, 1990 ISBN 0-590-22285-6
Fantastic Cardboard
Aircraft to Make and Fly
The Usborne Book of Clive Gifford Usborne Publishing, 1995 ISBN 07460 17197
Cutaway Planes
What’s a Piper Cub? Jim Wheaton Humpty Bump Publishing, 1997 ISBN 0-9658514-0-0

Videos
Source Phone Title/ Run Time Audience Cost
GAMA 202-393-1500 Take Off for Opportunity Middle & $12.00
1400 K St NW, Suite 801 11 minutes High School
Washington, DC 20005
King Schools, Inc. 800-854-1001 Let’s Go Flying Middle & $29.00
3840 Calle Fortunada 60 minutes High School
San Diego, CA 92123
Meriden House, LTD 800-260-3434 Airplanes and Airports Ages 3 – 5 $39.95
Video Publishing 15 minutes
PO Box 281 Let’s Go Flying, Kids Ages 5 – 7
Meriden, NH 03770 30 minutes $19.95
Sporty’s Pilot Shop 800-543-8633 Cleared to Land Elementary $12.95
Wright Bros. Collection Item – M453W • 60 minutes
Clermont County Airport Where Do Planes Sleep? Ages 2 - 8 $14.95
Batavia, OH 45103 Item – M745W • 30 minutes

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 High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –
wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew –
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high unsurpassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee

No 412 squadron, RCAF

421 Aviation Way • Frederick, MD 21701 • www.aopa.org

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January 2001