Fixed-wing aircraft

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. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft, in which the wings form a rotor mounted on a spinning shaft, and ornithopters, in which the wings flap in similar manner to a bird.

Glider fixed-wing aircraft, including free-flying gliders of various kinds and tethered kites, can use moving air to gain height. Powered fixed-wing aircraft that gain forward thrust from an engine (aeroplanes) include powered paragliders, powered hang gliders and some ground effect vehicles.

The wings of a fixed-wing aircraft are not necessarily rigid; kites, hang-gliders, variable-sweep wing aircraft and aeroplanes using wing-warping are all fixed-wing aircraft. Most fixed-wing aircraft are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled.

Kites were used approximately 2,800 years ago in China, where materials ideal for kite building were readily available. Some authors hold that leaf kites were being flown much earlier in what is now Indonesia, based on their interpretation of cave paintings on Muna Island off Sulawesi. By at least 549 AD paper kites were being flown, as it was recorded in that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources list other uses of kites for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, and communication for military operations.

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