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Aviation: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
The First Flight
On 17 December 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered, controlled aeroplane flight, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It lasted 12 seconds.
Key fact
The first flight covered 37 m, less than a jumbo jet’s wingspan.
How Wings Lift
Wings are shaped and tilted so they push air downwards as the plane moves. Pushing air down pushes the wing up: that’s lift.
Key fact
Planes take off into the wind to get more lift at a lower ground speed.
Jumbo Jets
The Boeing 747, first flown in 1969, was the original jumbo jet. The Airbus A380, the biggest passenger plane ever, can carry over 800 people.
Key fact
Airliners usually cruise at around 10 to 12 km up.
Flight Safety
Flying is one of the safest ways to travel. Every airliner carries “black boxes”, flight recorders that help investigators learn from accidents.
Key fact
Black boxes are actually bright orange, so they’re easy to find.
Jet Engines
A jet engine sucks in air, squeezes it, burns fuel in it and blasts the hot gas out the back. Pushing gas backwards pushes the plane forwards.
Key fact
Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain each invented jet engines in the 1930s.
Faster Than Sound
In 1947, Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1 faster than sound. Concorde later carried passengers at twice the speed of sound, until it retired in 2003.
Key fact
Concorde crossed the Atlantic in about 3.5 hours.
Airports
Big airports are like small cities. Air traffic controllers guide planes safely, and runways are numbered by their compass direction.
Key fact
Runway 09 points east: 090 degrees on the compass.
Fun facts
Scraps of the Wright Flyer’s fabric have flown to the Moon on Apollo 11 and to Mars on the Ingenuity helicopter.
Stunt planes can fly upside down: tilting the wings still pushes air downwards.
The Airbus A380’s wings cover about twice the area of a basketball court.
An airliner is struck by lightning about once a year, usually without any harm.
At take-off, the fan of a big jet engine can swallow more than a tonne of air every second.
A sonic boom is the shock wave made by something moving faster than sound.
Toronto’s airport code is YYZ, because many Canadian airport codes start with Y.
Story: Heads for Wilbur
Heads for Wilbur
December 1903, North Carolina. The Wright brothers toss a coin to decide who flies first. Wilbur wins.
His try fails: the Flyer climbs too steeply, stalls and thumps into the sand. Repairs take three days.
On 17 December it’s Orville’s turn. He stays up for 12 seconds: the first controlled, powered aeroplane flight.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
The Wright brothers’ first flight lasted about 12 seconds.
Show the answer
True. Orville flew about 37 metres in 12 seconds.
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Question 2 of 10
A plane needs air flowing over its wings to fly.
Show the answer
True. No airflow, no lift.
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Question 3 of 10
The Airbus A380 is a double-decker plane.
Show the answer
True. It has two full passenger decks.
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Question 4 of 10
Aircraft “black boxes” are painted bright orange.
Show the answer
True. Bright orange makes them easier to find after an accident.
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Question 5 of 10
A jet engine pushes the plane forwards by blasting gas backwards.
Show the answer
True. Action and reaction, as Newton described.
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Question 6 of 10
Concorde carried passengers faster than the speed of sound.
Show the answer
True. At about twice the speed of sound.
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Question 7 of 10
Runway numbers come from compass directions.
Show the answer
True. Runway 09 points east.
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Question 8 of 10
The first powered flight took place in France.
Show the answer
False. It was at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the United States.
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Question 9 of 10
Planes fly because their engines push them straight upwards.
Show the answer
False. Engines push the plane forwards; the wings make the lift.
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Question 10 of 10
Airliners usually cruise at about 2 km high.
Show the answer
False. They cruise at about 10 to 12 km, above most weather.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Aviation has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — The Wright brothers
- NASA Glenn Research Center — Beginner’s Guide to Aeronautics (lift, jet engines)
- Airbus — A380 facts and figures
- FAA — Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (runway numbering)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Concorde, Bell X-1
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — SR-71; Sperry autopilot
- IATA — Sustainable aviation fuels
