Intro to Aircraft………..page1
The 4 Forces……………..page 2
Engines……………………..page 3
Cockpit…………..………….page 5
Takeoff/Landing………..page 7
Aircraft Flight……..…….page 9
Types of Aircraft……..page 11
Crashes/Emergencies. Page 13
Airports……...…………….page 15
Glossary…………………….page 17
Bibliography…………..…page 19
About the author………page 20

Tens of thousands of people fly on aircraft every day but hardly any of them know exactly how they work.
This book will tell you everything you need to know
(and more) about Aircraft, Airports and how we mastered the skies.
O k, so first things first, who created the first aircraft? Well technically it was Leonardo da Vinci but that was a glider, an aircraft with no engine, but still an aircraft. The first person (or people should I say) to make an aircraft with an engine were the
Wright brothers. The Wright brothers made and patented the aircraft “The flyer”. The Wright brothers placed a bet with each other and the winner -which turned out to be Orville Wright- got the first flight. Orville Wright flew for 12 seconds that day at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
There are 4 forces that act on an aircraft and keep in in the air. They are Lift, Weight,
Thrust, and Drag. The first one, Lift is obviously what keeps the aircraft in the air.
Lift is the force that pushes up from the bottom of the aircraft and moves it upwards.
The wings of an aircraft generate most of this force. The next one, Weight is what pulls the plane down and the power of this force is determined by how heavy the aircraft is. If there is not enough lift, the aircraft will not be able to take off as the weight will overcome the lift. Third of all is Thrust. Thrust is what makes the airplane move forward and this force is generated by the engines. This force also creates Lift. Lastly is Drag. Drag is what pulls back on the aircraft and is why aircraft are streamlined. Drag can be created by flat wall-like surfaces which will make the air slow down. This is why aircraft have flaps, slats and spoilers to slow the aircraft down for landing.
More about that later.

Engines are the main part of an aircraft. There are a variety of different types of engines.
The first one is the good old propeller. The propeller is very basic, there was a motor strapped to the wing or on the nose (for singleengine propeller aircraft) and on the tip of that was a propeller (looks like a big fan) that sped up the air behind it to propel the aircraft forward.
The turbofan engine has a big fan at the front which makes the air speed up, and splits the air into two directions, the core and the exterior.
The exterior is responsible for 80% of the engines thrust and the core is responsible for 20% of the engines thrust.
Once the air goes through the fan and gets split into 2 flows the one that goes through the core now goes through the low pressure compressor, then the high pressure compressor. After that, it goes through the diffuser that slows down the air a bit before entering the combustor. When it enters the combustor
kerosene (a jet fuel) gets added to the mixture, and then ignited. After that it passes through the high pressure turbine which drives the high pressure compressor on a shaft called the high spool. Then it passes through the low pressure turbine which drives both the low pressure compressor and the main fan at the beginning of the engine. Lastly it exits the engine at high speeds. As for the Exterior, it goes through the engine increasing in speed as it goes along. The
Exterior also quietens the Core’s air.
Figure 1: Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine on an A380
Figure 2: The inside of an aircraft engine

There are many kinds of aircraft systems but it would take too long to go through them all so
First of all, the attitude indicator.
The attitude indicator tells the pilots the planes attitude, the way it’s turning, climbing and descending. The attitude indicator is wired to the gyro in plane’s wings and sometimes in the plane’s nose. The gyro is like a digital box, when the gyro turns to the right a 30 degrees, the image on the pilot’s attitude indicator turns to 30 degrees.
Figure 3: An attitude indicator
1.
The word airspeed indicator is very selfexplanatory; it’s an indicator that tells you the aircrafts airspeed. Airspeed indicators work by measuring the difference between static pressure, captured through one or more static ports; and stagnation pressure due to "ram air", captured through a pitot tube. This difference in pressure due to ram air is called impact pressure.
The last indicator is the altitude indicator. The altitude indicator tells the pilots how high the plane is flying. Altitude can be determined based on the measurement of atmospheric pressure. The greater the altitude, the lower the pressure.
2.
Figure 4: An altimeter

Takeoff and landing are the most important parts of a flight; it’s how the aircraft gets in the air in the first place.
This chapter will tell you how an aircraft gets into the air (and back down again).
First, if it’s a big aircraft full of passengers and cargo it must be pushed
back from the gate via a tow vehicle or
Tug. Once it is away from the gate and has instructions from the Air Traffic
Controller or ATC, it can taxi to the runway and then request permission for takeoff via the ATC. Once on the runway the pilots go through the takeoff
checklist which tells them how to prepare for takeoff. Once the flaps are set to about 15 degrees and the rest of the checklist is complete, the aircraft’s engine(s) go to full power and the aircraft starts increasing in speed. There are 2 marks on a planes takeoff, V1 and
V2.
V1 is the speed at which the aircraft cannot abort the takeoff and has to takeoff, even if both engines fail. V2 is the speed in which the aircraft must rotate. When the aircraft is about to land, the pilots go through the before landing checklist which does the same as the takeoff checklist, except for landing. It usually tells them to decrease speed to about 180 knots and increase flaps to full. Just before touchdown, the aircraft
flares or pulls up a bit so that, A, the main gear touch the runway before the nose gear and, B, so that the aircraft can slow down a bit more before touchdown. Once the gear touches the ground the engines go into reverse, the pilots switch to ground radio, and, the pilots apply brakes to slow the aircraft further. After that, the pilot follows the taxi instructions provided by the ATC and park at their assigned gate.
Figure 1: A landing A380

So we have gotten this far, all the way to
Aircraft Flight. In this chapter I will explain how the plane moves up and down, side to side. Also how the flaps, slats, and spoilers work.
Most every airplane has a rudder, elevators, and ailerons. The way the aircraft moves the direction of its nose is simple; the pilot has to move his controls, and the plane responds. To turn the plane sideways, downwards, or upwards the plane sends a signal to the part required to turn the airplane sideways, it uses the rudder or the ailerons. On the tail, there is a piece at the end which can move from side to side, and the ailerons can move up or down, therefore, directing the air moving toward the tail and wings to the go up or down and moving the airplane according to how much the parts moved.
Planes have Flaps, Slats, and Spoilers for a very good reason. They can all create drag or lift. Lift can be created through these parts because they direct the flow of air downwards, pushing the plane upwards.
They can also create drag by moving to a
180 degrees position which brings the air going under the wing to a stop.
Diagram 1: The parts of a Boeing 727

There are many diverse types of aircraft, but we are only going to talk about the main important ones, being Military,
Passenger, and Cargo.
If you have flown on a plane before you must have flown on a passenger aircraft.
Nowadays these aircraft are called
Modern Airliners, and the characteristics of these aircraft are…
 Normally fly at about 30000 feet but could be higher or lower depending on how far the plane has to travel.
 Have Turbofan engines.
 Are usually very big
 Travel at speeds around 480 knots
 or about 900km/h
Although passenger aircraft can take a lot of cargo with them, it is not enough space for commercial cargo, and the passenger’s luggage. That’s why we have cargo, or freighter aircraft; to carry a lot of cargo to places around the world. Cargo aircraft are almost always exactly the same as passenger aircraft but they carry cargo instead. There are also aircraft which have a half and half as in, half of the cabin is taken up with cargo and the other half is taken up with passengers. Even massive pieces of machinery can be transported via freighter planes.
Lastly, there are military aircraft which you have probably seen on TV. Military aircraft are super-fast, normally small aircraft equipped with advanced weaponry.
 Travel at speeds of up 3 Mach, or three times the speed of sound.
 Are pretty much always equipped with some weapon.
 Normally quite short range aircraft.

Planes are very safe, but they aren’t flawless. Every now and then, an aircraft will crash or have to make an Emergency
Landing. In this chapter we will go over 2 of some of the most catastrophic aircraft crash events.
Southern Airways flight 242
When a DC-9 takes off from Northwest
Alabama regional airport it passes through a severe storm and the aircraft suffers serious engine damage due to hail. Shortly after, the aircraft suffers a dual-engine
failure and is forced to make a landing on a road as there are no airports within reach.
When the aircraft lands on the road, it runs into a car which then explodes, killing 9 on the ground and in the car. The explosion also severely damages the plane and causes a huge fire on the aircraft. In total 73 people died and 21 survived the catastrophe.
KLM flight 4805 and Pan Am flight 1736
On a Sunday in 1977 two 747s and many other aircraft are heading to Gando airport in the Canary
Islands. But terrorist groups who want the Canary
Islands to have independence from Spain have just planted a bomb in the terminal and are going to plant another one soon. Consequently the ATC closes the airport. All incoming aircraft are diverted to Tenerife’s Los Rodeos airport. Now, Los
Rodeos is clogged with aircraft. The aircraft are going to use the runway as a taxiway, then turn around, and take off. But then, a thick layer of fog rolls into the airport and brings the visibility right down to about 450m. While the KLM 747 has got to the end of the runway and is about to turn around, the Pan Am 747 is still using the runway as a taxiway and they are both headed directly towards each other. The KLM 747 does not get permission from the tower and takes off. The Pan
Am 747 sees the KLM and tries to turn off the runway at full speed while the KLM plane tries to take off. Both aircraft collide killing a total of 583 people while only 63 survive. The survivors were only from the Pan Am aircraft as all the passengers on the KLM aircraft perished.


Check-in and bag drop space is becoming less congested because of mobile boarding passes and passengers' ability to print tickets at home. Baggage drop-off and screening are automatic. Security areas can get very busy. They are often too small for the safety screening and the number of passengers that need to be checked at high traffic times. Most were
 designed before September 11, 2001.
Concessions are the stores and restaurants and nail salons that feed and entertain passengers and make money for the airport.
 Holdrooms are seating areas for passengers who have cleared security and are waiting to board their flights.
 Gates provide passenger access to aircraft. A gate might be rented to a particular airline. Sometimes a gate is shared between a few of them.
Figure 5: Incheon International Airport

Airfield
The "airside" of the airport includes apron, taxilanes/taxiways, runways, and air traffic control.
Apron is the area where planes park, and are loaded. Looking out an aircraft window, you'll see lots of small vehicles (ground service equipment), which are used for moving plane cargo as well as meals and waste, the toilet chambers and food leftovers. They also push the plane back from the gate to the taxilane.


Taxilanes and taxiways are the "roads" on the airfield for aircraft to move between the gate and the runway.
Runways probably need no introduction. This is where your plane takes off!
 Air traffic control goes through aircraft movement on the ground and through controlled airspace. The most trained controllers supervise this procedure to keep air traffic moving well and organized and avoid encounters for both airplanes.
1.
Hartsfield
–Jackson
Atlanta International Airport
Atlanta , Georgia
United
States
ATL/KATL 96,178,899
1.9%
2.
Beijing Capital
International Airport
Chaoyang , Beijing China PEK/ZBAA 86,130,390
2.9%
3.
London Heathrow
Airport
Hillingdon , London
United
Kingdom
LHR/EGLL 73,408,442
1.4%
4. Tokyo Haneda Airport
Ōta
, Tokyo Japan HND/RJTT 72,826,862
5.8%

 Thrust: the force that moves the plane forward and is produced by the engines.
 Drag: The force that holds the plane back, Aircraft manufacturers try to make aircraft that create as little of this force as possible. This force can be created by the Flaps, Slats, and Ailerons.
 Kerosene: A type of petrol that is refined and specialized for aircraft only.
 Ram air: Air that is forced to enter a moving aperture, such as the air intake of an aircraft.
 Attitude: for aircraft this means: What way the nose facing, for example, 50 degrees upward.
 Gyro: a metal box normally in the wings
 of an aircraft. It determines the attitude of an aircraft.
Altitude: How high the plane is in the air.
 Pushback: How the aircraft moves backwards from the gate so it can start taxiing, this maneuver is performed by a
Tug.
 ATC: Or Air Traffic Control, is what tells the aircraft where to go and how without colliding with other aircraft.
 V1: The speed during Takeoff in which the aircraft cannot abort takeoff and must keep going.
 V2: The speed in which the aircraft must takeoff.
 Abort: To stop Takeoff or landing due to another aircraft, Aircraft failure, etc.
 Checklist: A list that tells the pilots hat to do for landing, Startup, etc.
 Flare: Just before the aircraft touches the ground it pulls up a bit so that the main landing gear touches the runway first and also so that the aircraft doesn’t smash into the ground and bounce.
 Flaps: The part of the aircraft at the back of the wing that either adds lift or increases drag for takeoff/landing/climbout/descent.
 Emergency Landing: When the plane must make a landing at a place that is not its destination due to failure or lack of fuel.
 Dual-Engine failure: when both engines fail on a moving aircraft.

Airliners.net, made by Johan Lundgren Jr, in
1994, accessed from the 20 th to the 30 th of
March 2015.
Wikipedia, made by Jimmy Wales, and Larry
Sanger, on the 15 th of January 2001, accessed from the 20 th to the 30 th of March 2015.
All pictures where copied from unknown sites on the web.
River Zion Reith is a magazine writer who goes to school at Escola Americana Rio de Janeiro.
He is planning to stay in Rio for 2 more years and then move to the U.K. He has travelled on aircraft for many years and still more to come. He has currently flown on about 45 flights around the world to more than 10 countries and 23 cities. He is planning to write more books and magazines in the next years.