An airplane is a complex piece of machinery. It has to be able to defy gravity and remain airborne. Its workings can seem mysterious to laypeople on the ground. However, there is nothing mystical or magical about an airplane's functioning. It is made up of many different mechanical parts, and those parts all work together under a pilot's operation to get the plane off the ground.

Cockpit

The cockpit is the area of the plane where the pilot and co-pilot sit during the flight in special chairs installed for that purpose. The instrument panel includes all the navigation equipment, such as the fleet GPS trackers, and the gauges that provide the pilot information about the plane's engine, altitude, etc.

Flying a plane isn't much like driving a car, but there are foot pedals in a plane's cockpit just as there are in an automobile. These are rudder pedals used for steering the plane while it is on the ground. While the plane is in flight, the pedals control its yaw.

There are also consoles on the sides of the cockpit, as well as panels overhead. The consoles on the sides contain communication instruments, while the overhead panel contains hydraulics, electrical, and other aircraft systems.

Engines and Propellers

The engines provide the necessary thrust needed to create lift and get the plane airborne. More accurately, the engine turns the propeller, which creates thrust, which allows the plane to get up off the ground. Small planes have one engine and one propeller, which is located up front in the nose of the aircraft. Large planes have several engines and propellers that are located underneath the wings. Planes have either turbine or reciprocating engines.

Propellers do not create lift. Rather, they create forward thrust. The forward motion creates vertical lift by causing air to pass over the wings. The shape and construction of the propeller is similar to that of the wings in that both are airfoils. However, propellers are installed in a vertical fashion.

Wings

The main function of the wings is to create lift. However, the wings of a plane also have a critical function to play in steering the plane by controlling the amount of lift and its direction. As a result, the wings of an airplane have far more moving parts that most people realize so the pilot can create lift and drag to make the plane fly higher or lower or change direction.

Landing Gear

Despite the name, the landing gear has an important role to play in the take-off of the plane as well as the landing. The forward motion that combines with thrust to create lift is much smoother because of the landing gear. The landing gear consists of a shock-absorbing strut in addition to the tire, and this is necessary to absorb the impact when the plane touches the ground. Large planes usually have landing gears that retract into the plane's body when they are no longer needed to reduce drag. On smaller planes, however, the landing gears are fixed in place.

Empennage

The empennage is the tail of the plane. While it has a role to play in creating lift, its main function is to stabilize it. It helps to control the motion of the nose, which is the front of the plane. Stabilizers in the empennage help to control the movement of the nose of the plane. The vertical stabilizer controls the yaw, or side-to-side motion, while the horizontal stabilizer controls the pitch, or up-and-down motion of the plane's nose.

Fuselage

The main body of the plane is the fuselage. If the plane carries cargo, it is stored in an area of the fuselage. The cockpit is a part of the fuselage, as is the passenger compartment, if applicable. The fuselage essentially connects to all the other parts of the aircraft and keeps the whole thing in one piece.

There is no part of the airplane that is more or less important than the others. All are necessary to make the flight safe and successful.