The fuselage of an airplane is what a body is to a car. It is long, smooth and cylindrical in shape which makes the plane aerodynamic. The main functions of the fuselage are holding the different parts of the plane together and carrying the passengers and fuel on board. At the front of the fuselage, resembling a nose, is the cockpit. This is the area from which the airplane is controlled by its pilots. The cockpit has windows for the pilots to see through and contains controls and instruments which allow them to fly and steer the airplane.
Drag is the resistance to motion and is overcome by thrust which pushes the plane forward. On larger airplanes, thrust is generated by the airplane's turbine engines which are located on the wings near the fuselage while propellers provide propulsion on lower speed aircraft. Drag is increased using the flaps on the wings and decreased via the winglets on the tips of the wings. A spoiler on the wings also allows the pilot to change the drag. The plane will slow down when the drag is greater than the amount of thrust, and it will increase in speed when the thrust is more than the drag.
To become airborne, the weight of the airplane and what it has on board must be lifted into the air. While the thrust of the engines pushes the plane along, the wings lift the plane into the air with the slats on the underside of the wings and flaps on the upper-side of the wings used to increase lift. The spoiler on the wing also functions to change lift. The plane will begin descending when the amount of lift is less than the airplane's weight. Conversely, the plane will start to climb when lift is increased to more than the weight of the plane.
The aircraft is steered using smaller wing-like components located on the airplane's tail. The plane's yaw motion is its movement from left to right and this is controlled by vertical stabilizer which stops the nose from swinging from side to side. The rudder, located on the tail, is used to change yaw. Pitch refers to the up and down movement of a plane, with the horizontal stabilizers on either side of the tail maintaining control of the nose. There is a hinged part on the horizontal stabilizer called an elevator which can be used to move the tail up and down. The wings of the plane can be rolled up and down using hinged sections on the wings called ailerons.
