* October 3 – An X-15 research aircraft with test pilot William J. Knight establishes an unofficial world fixed-wing speed record of Mach 6. 7.

Most fixed-wing aircraft are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled.

Three types of fixed-wing aircraft are operated by the FAA for training purposes: pilot training is carried out using the Grob Tutor while, from March 2011, observer training is done using four Beechcraft King Air 350s.

Stalls in fixed-wing flight are often experienced as a sudden reduction in lift as the pilot increases angle of attack and exceeds the critical angle of attack ( which may be due to slowing down below stall speed in level flight ).

He made his fortune in the financial services industry, and was best known for many world records, including five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot.

Cochran was also the first woman to land and take off from an aircraft carrier, the first woman to reach Mach 2, the first woman to pilot a bomber across the North Atlantic ( in 1941 ), the first pilot to make a blind ( instrument ) landing, the only woman ever to be President of the Federation Aeronautique International ( 1958 – 1961 ), the first woman to fly a fixed-wing, jet aircraft across the Atlantic, the first pilot to fly above 20, 000 ft with an oxygen mask, and the first woman to enter the Bendix Transcontinental Race.

* Heini Dittmar, the first pilot to ever hold any sort of airspeed record, unofficial or otherwise, while flying a rocket powered fixed-wing aircraft ( Messerschmitt Me 163A and B-series prototypes ) at 1004 km / h ( 624 mph ) in 1941, and 1130 km / h ( 702 mph ) in 1944.

Major Buang became the first VNAF fixed-wing pilot to ever land on a carrier.

Airship pilot training for previously designated heavier-than-air Naval Aviators from the fixed-wing and rotary-wing communities was conducted by the Airship Training Unit ( ZTG ) at NAS Glynco, which had moved from NAS Lakehurst in 1954.

Traditionally, the first officer sits on the right-hand side of a fixed-wing aircraft (" right seat ") and the left-hand side of a helicopter ( the reason for this difference is related to the fact that in many cases the pilot flying is unable to release his right side from the cyclic control to operate the instruments, thus he sits on the right hand and does that with his left hand ).

The Rotodyne was developed to combine the efficiency of a fixed-wing aircraft at cruise with the VTOL capability of a helicopter to provide short haul airliner service from city centres to airports.

The Short SC. 1 ( Belfast, Northern Ireland ) was the first British fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing ( VTOL ) aircraft.

The Mk 40 was used during the Korean and Vietnam wars, being used to provide close air support to ground forces from about 20 different firing platforms, both fixed-wing and armed helicopters.

Cayley was building and flying models of fixed-wing aircraft as early as 1803, and he built a successful passenger-carrying glider in 1853.

* 1993-Fort Worth Division, a producer of fixed-wing military aircraft, to Lockheed ( a nearby electronics production facility, in which Lockheed was not interested, was sold separately to Elbit Systems ).

In the 1991 Gulf War a mix of strikes by fixed-wing aircraft including carpet bombing and precision bombing was used in combination with large numbers of strikes by attack helicopters.

As all-metal construction and the cantilever wing ( both having been pioneered by Hugo Junkers in 1915 ) became common during the post-WWI period the day of the biplane passed, and by the 1930s the monoplane was fast becoming the usual configuration for a fixed-wing aircraft.

The largest fixed-wing aircraft in the world in the mid-1930s, the Tupolev ANT-20 ( photo ) was named Maxim Gorky in his honor.

The chairmanship of Eric Mensforth from 1953 – 1968 marked the start of the transition, which was aided by the government when in 1959 – 1961 they forced the merger of the 20 or so aviation firms into three groups, British Aircraft Corporation and Hawker Siddeley Group took over fixed-wing designs, while the helicopter divisions of Bristol, Fairey and Saunders-Roe ( with their hovercraft ) were merged with Westland to form Westland Helicopters in 1961.

With the loss of its only fixed-wing flying unit, Malmstrom's runway was decommissioned as a cost-savings measure following departure of the last KC-135R aircraft in 1997.

Of all the weapons systems utilized against the trail, according to the official North Vietnamese history of the conflict, the AC-130 Spectre fixed-wing gunship was the most formidable adversary.

Supporters of Santos-Dumont maintain that this means the 14-bis was, technically, the first successful fixed-wing aircraft.

Prior to the cessation of commercial air service, the route flown between Bush Intercontinental and Ellington Field was the shortest fixed-wing route flown in the United States at only.

This was followed a year later by the transfer to Andrews of all fixed-wing flying activities from Bolling Air Force Base.

In 1951, Land-Air Inc., which implemented the first Contract Field Teams ( teams of technicians that maintained military aircraft for the United States Air Force ), was bought by California Eastern Aviation Inc. DynCorp still holds the contract 50 years later, maintaining rotary and fixed-wing aircraft for all branches of the U. S. Armed Forces.

It was initially pressed into Army use after the Pearl Harbor bombing, and then later during World War II by the Navy as an adjunct runway to the Trumbo Point Seaplane Base and the main Naval Air Station for fixed-wing and lighter-than-air ( i. e., blimp ) aircraft on Boca Chica Key.

Lindbergh was the first American ever to cross the Atlantic non-stop in a fixed-wing aircraft ( rather than an airship ), and he promptly became a national hero.

The Joint Task Force commander was U. S. Army Major General James B. Vaught, while the fixed-wing and overall air mission commander was Colonel James H. Kyle, the helicopter commander Marine Lieutenant Colonel Edward R. Seiffert, and Delta Force commander Col. Charlie Beckwith.

First Himalayan climb supported by a fixed-wing aircraft, which eventually crashed in Hidden Valley north of the mountain during takeoff and was abandoned.

This was the most systematic global survey of fixed-wing heavier-than-air aviation research published up to that time.

With the arrival of dirigibles and then fixed-wing aircraft in Italy he quickly recognized the military potential of the new technology.

Thirty stations, operated by 16 national governments party to the Antarctic Treaty, have landing facilities for either helicopters and / or fixed-wing aircraft ; commercial enterprises operate two additional air facilities.

Helicopter pads are available at 27 stations ; runways at 15 locations are gravel, sea-ice, blue-ice, or compacted snow suitable for landing wheeled, fixed-wing aircraft ; of these, 1 is greater than 3 km in length, 6 are between 2 km and 3 km in length, 3 are between 1 km and 2 km in length, 3 are less than 1 km in length, and 2 are of unknown length ; snow surface skiways, limited to use by ski-equipped, fixed-wing aircraft, are available at another 15 locations ; of these, 4 are greater than 3 km in length, 3 are between 2 km and 3 km in length, 2 are between 1 km and 2 km in length, 2 are less than 1 km in length, and data is unavailable for the remaining 4.

Lift is commonly associated with the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft, although lift is also generated by propellers, kites, helicopter rotors, rudders, sails and keels on sailboats, hydrofoils, wings on auto racing cars, wind turbines and other streamlined objects.

An airplane ( also known as an aeroplane in British English or simply a plane ) is a powered fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine or propeller.

Most fixed-wing aircraft are constructed by companies with the objective of producing them in quantity for customers.

A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type.

Unlike aerodynamic aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, which produce lift by moving a wing through the air, aerostatic aircraft stay aloft by having a large " envelope " filled with a gas which is less dense than the surrounding atmosphere.

A fixed-wing aircraft can be made to stall in any pitch attitude or bank angle or at any airspeed but is commonly practiced by reducing the speed to the unaccelerated stall speed, at a safe altitude.

Unaccelerated ( 1g ) stall speed varies on different fixed-wing aircraft and is represented by colour codes on the air speed indicator.

The first daylight bombing attack on London by a fixed-wing aircraft took place on 13 June 1917.

The first dedicated interceptor squadrons were formed up during World War I in order to defend against attacks by Zeppelins, and later against early fixed-wing long-range bombers.

The USCG maintains an extensive fleet of coastal and ocean-going patrol ships, called cutters by tradition, and small craft, as well as an extensive aviation division consisting of HH-65 Dolphin and HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules, HU-25 Guardian, and HC-144 Ocean Sentry.

While ultralight-type planes date back to the early 1900s ( such as the Santos-Dumont Demoiselle ), there have been three generations of modern, fixed-wing ultralight aircraft designs, which are generally classed by the type of structure.

Another use of the cantilever is in fixed-wing aircraft design, pioneered by Hugo Junkers in 1915.

A jet aircraft ( or simply jet ) is an aircraft ( nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft ) propelled by jet engines.