Air travel isn’t just limited to commercial planes or private jets. These birds of flight are more than just our vehicle for travelling around the world. We use plane to defend our skies & protect against foreign invasion with fighter planes as well! If you’re curious about some popular planes that are & have once dominated the skies, we’ve compiled a list of 5 plane varieties you might not have known about before. Happy reading!

Concorde

Concord. Credit: Pixabay/froehlich-gera

What was once considered to be an iconic piece of history is now slowly being redesigned & introduced for the more modern market! The Concorde was manufactured by a British-French airliner when the pointed nose design signalled luxury & elegance. It could seat up to 128 passengers & travel at up to twice the speed of sound. Believe it or not, this aircraft has also reached supersonic speeds!

Turboprop Aircraft

Turboprop. Credit: Pixabay/Kim_R_Hunter

A cheaper option to flying a private jet is trying your private flight in a turboprop aircraft. This small carrier is perfect for flying around 600 to 1000 miles in a single flight with a higher altitude of 35,000 feet. This small aircraft has gas turbine engines that are connected to a gearbox that turns the propellers to start the aircraft.

Piston Aircraft

If you think a turboprop aircraft is small, then you’ll think a piston aircraft is tiny! These small planes pack a punch and have piston-powered engines that turn the propellers. These planes are popular for close-range private flights because they seat 2-6 people and fly less than 400 miles. This aircraft is also famous because they don’t need long runways or traffic control towers to navigate.

Wide Body Airliner

From jets to commercial carriers, a wide-body aircraft means exactly that; having a wide body. This helps when you have cargo equipment or even want to fit in more people flying to a destination. The cabin diameter in a wide-body aircraft is nearly 5 meters to 6 meters, with the capacity to accommodate nearly 850 passengers on board! An iconic wide-body aircraft known around the world would be Air Force One, the U.S. President’s personal plane.

Airbus

Airbus is among the most commonly known aircraft carriers you will find in any commercial flight besides the Boeing jet. In fact, Airbus was the world’s first twin-aisle aircraft with twin engines. Today, you will see variations of this plane from the double-decker Airbus A380 to the A318, A319, A350, A220, and A321.