All too often, the term AIRCRAFT

[JohnDBarrow]

supplants the term AIRPLANE in the English-speaking flying community and by many present-day aircraft manufacturers. During the 1970's, the word AIRPLANE was commonly used by Beechcraft in magazine print ads. Beechcraft used to advertise airplanes regularly in National Geographic.

If it is self-powered and has fixed wings to stay aloft by aerodynamic forces, it is strictly a PLANE or AIRPLANE. Jet airplanes these days are even more likely than propeller-driven planes to be dubbed AIRCRAFT or JET AIRCRAFT by manufacturers of such planes. Boeing is an American maker of jetliners and even once titled their company Boeing Commerical Airplanes.

Imagine if John Denver otherwise sang, "I'm leaving, on a jet aircraft, I don't know when I'll be back again."


In 1989, I was flying on an Eastern Airlines Boeing 757 while in the service. The nice young stewardess said what a nice-flying airplane (in her own words) the 757 was. It was actually smooth and quiet in flight.


Since the 1990's, I'd observed stewardesses' and captains' calling their flying machines AIRCRAFT when making safety announcements to passengers on board. In the film, Airport 1975, a little boy on board spoke of the 747 as an AIRCRAFT, a big pussy cat he admired. Very official sounding if you ask me. In the 1968 film, Bullitt, with Steve McQueen, the Pan Am 707 on the set was referred to even then as an AIRCRAFT by the flight crew.

The American naval officer character of Danny Glover in the 1991 film, The Flight of the Intruder, would only speak of navy jets as AIRCRAFT or JET AIRCRAFT.

[rwanttaja]

I think "airplane" is sometimes viewed by non-specialists as an archaic term, like "aeroplane."

When all else fails, check the FAA regulations. 14CFR Part 1 states:

"Aircraft means a device that is used or intended to be used for flight in the air. "

...and

"Airplane means an engine-driven fixed-wing aircraft heavier than air, that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its wings. "

Curiously, under FAA regulations, a glider is not an airplane....

Ron Wanttaja

[JohnDBarrow]

non-specialists, laymen

When I was in the Army, there was an old Dept. of the Army technical manual labeled in the shop for an "observation airplane". I'm not sure what US military model it was for.

I know an OH-58 was a military observation helicopter, basically a Bell Jet Ranger like the cops have. They might have otherwise termed GLIDER "thermalplane" instead. Some gliders are termed "sailplane". But do they really SAIL like a boat of ship at sea?