Aircraft Lesson 1 & 1.1

I want to learn more about aircraft, and so does Pyper.  So now that I have the blog, I can take it one at a time. 

Today we headed to Donaldson Center Airport to visit Andy. He ended up getting stuck in Naples, Florida last night due to weather, and us girls missed him too much to wait for him to get off work.  When we arrived, there were a couple "new" planes on the ramp.  

Us, and Pete the Cat, taking shade under the Short 360 wing.  The next time I introduce an aircraft, I'll be sure to take a picture of the entire thing.

I immediately recognized the silhouette of the larger of the two visitors.  It looked very similar to a "Sherpa" airplane used to deploy smokejumpers out of Winthrop, WA.  Andy informed me that it was probably a Short 360.  I've done a little research now, and the "Sherpa" is a military variant of the Short 360.  

Pyper checking out the back portion of the plane.  Andy making sure that you are learning something right now.

The Short 360 is an airliner with very good short takeoff and landing (STOL) performance, allowing it to be used in places with very small runways. The name Short wasn't given because of this, but because it was designed by Short Brothers, a company based in Belfast, Ireland which has been operating since 1908, making it the oldest aviation company in the world.  In fact, two of the three Short Brothers had been selling hot-air balloons since 1902, a year before the Wright Brothers made their first flight in a heavier-than-air plane. The Short Brothers even built six copies of the original Wright Flyer under license, and so became the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world.

Photo of the same plane found on the internet taken by Reinhard Zinabold

The Short 360 can carry up to 39 passengers, but is also operated as a cargo plane. The boxy shape of the plane makes it very practical for airline and cargo operation, but it does look quite strange, and the wings look far too small to support the weight of the plane.  Nevertheless, this has been a very successful design, exported to many countries and a modified version is still operated by the US Army and Forest Service as the C-23B Sherpa.  Short Brothers introduced the Short 360 in 1981 and produced a total of 165 Short 360s over 10 years.  

So there's the "Short" of it.  I hoped you enjoyed your first aircraft lesson.  

Pyper & Pete helping Andy "tug" their plane into the hanger.

Lesson 1.1 The difference between an aircraft and an airplane

The dictionary defines an aircraft as any craft that flies through the air, whether it be an airplane, helicopter, missile, glider, balloon, blimp, or any other vehicle that uses the air to generate lift for flight.

The term airplane, on the other hand, is more specific and refers only to a powered vehicle that relies on fixed wings to generate lift.

A Boeing 737 commercial airliner is both an airplane and an aircraft while the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter is an aircraft but not an airplane.