What is the basic structure of an airplane?

Answer 1

The main body of the airplane is called the fuselage. The wings jut out from the fuselage at the center of gravity and hold the airplanes weight during flight. Attached to the trailing edges of the wings are ailerons which are control surfaces used to control the plane on the roll axis, and the flaps which enable the plane to easier descend on final approach. The wing may attach to the fuselage at the top "high-wing" or at the bottom "low wing" or even bisect the fuselage "mid-wing" Some early airplanes had both high and low wings "bi-planes" and in rare occasions all three "tri-plane." Bi-planes usually only had control surfaces on one of their sets of wings. In some designs the wing may not attach directly to the fuselage at all, instead attaching to the aircraft via rigid structural pieces"struts" or "spars"

The tail usually consists of three smaller fins two horizontal and one vertical. Called the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. Attached to the trailing edge of the horizontal stabilizers are the elevators, these control surfaces are used to control the airplane on the pitch axis. Attached to the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer is the rudder, used to control the airplane on the yaw axis. Tails also come in many different configurations, T-tails put the horizontal stabilizers at the very top of the vertical, H tails have two smaller vertical stabilizers, and V tails have instead just two stabilizers with corresponding "ruddervator" control surfaces.

The engines may be mounted in many different places depending on the type of aircraft. Most civilian single-engine airplanes have the engine and propeller mounted on the front of the aircraft, most light twins have them mounted on the wings, jets may have engines mounted on spars below the wings or on the aft section of the fuselage. Aircraft have been made in many strange configurations, however, sometimes the engine can be in the back with a pusher-prop configuration, mounted on a spar well above the airplane, or in the case of the Cessna Skymaster one mounted on the front and another in back. Aircraft designers have always been keen to try new and strange ideas.

Landing gear typically comes in two flavors. Tricycle and tail-dragger. Tricycle-gear aircraft have the wheels configured just like a tricycle, with one wheel under the nose. Taildraggers instead have a small wheel (sometimes even just a skid!) on the tail. Airplanes may also be equipped with floats instead of wheels for water landings, or skis for snow and ice landings. Additionally some airplanes are designed with a boat-shaped hull for water landings.