airplane
- The first United States coast to coast airplane flight occurred in 1911 and took 49 days
- When airplanes were still a novel invention, seat belts for pilots were installed only after the consequence of their absence was observed to be fatal - several pilots fell to their deaths while flying upside down
- An airplane’s “blackbox”‘ is a device which records conditions and events on an air vessel. A “blackbox” is actually orange in color to make it more visible in the wreckage. The term black box might come from its charred appearance after an air crash
- A 747-400 has six million parts (half of which are fasteners) made in 33 different countries
- Seventy-five thousand engineering drawings were used to produce the first 747
- The outer skin of an aeroplane is only 5 mm thick. Only 7.5 in (19 cm) separate the passengers from the outside
- During takeoff, when full of high pressure air, the takeoff weight is increased by about a ton