Aircraft configurations

A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets.

Military transport aircraft or military cargo aircraft are typically fixed wing and rotary wing cargo aircraft which are used to airlift troops, weapons and other military equipment by a variety of methods to any area of military operations around the surface of the planet, usually outside the commercial flight routes in uncontrolled airspace.

A bomber is a combat aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry, firing torpedoes or deploying air-launched cruise missiles.

A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft.

Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft.

A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can hover, take off, and land vertically.

A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes.

Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorized foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider.

An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber, is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pressing the attack.

An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo.

A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.

A cargo aircraft (also known as freight aircraft, freighter, airlifter or cargo jet) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers.

A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews.

A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft, such as an aeroplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the vehicle's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings.

The X-53 Active Aeroelastic Wing (AAW) development program is a completed research project that was undertaken jointly by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Boeing Phantom Works and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, where the technology was flight tested on a modified McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet.

A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops.

Aircraft equipped with contra-rotating propellers, also referred to as CRP, coaxial contra-rotating propellers, or high-speed propellers, apply the maximum power of usually a single piston or turboprop engine to drive two coaxial propellers in contra-rotation (rotation about the same axis in opposite directions).

An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a powered, fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine or propeller.

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors.