Aviation (original) (raw)

Aviation or Air transport refers to the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft, include fixed wing (airplane) and rotary wing (helicopter) types, as well as lighter than air craft such as dirigibles.

Aviation can be broadly divided into three areas:

Commercial Aviation

Commercial air transport is offered by airlines, companies such as American Airlines, British Airways, Singapore Airlines or Cargolux, operating passenger or cargo flights.

General Aviation

General Aviation is a term comprising all of aviation other than government and scheduled air transport (airlines), and includes privately owned aircraft, charter services, business owned aircraft, such as "bizjets," and many more types of working aircraft that are not, strictly speaking, for transportation. General aviation (GA), contrary to popular opinion, is not exclusively non-commercial. Although a large part of General Aviation consists of recreational flying, an equally large part involves important, commercial activities. These include flight training, shipping, surveying, agricultural application, air taxi, charter passenger service, corporate flying, emergency transport, firefighting and more. Ultralights are increasingly becoming a part of the highly regularised civil aviation system, and are often considered a part of general aviation.

Military Aviation

Military aviation includes combat activities as well as flight missions that support military activities.

See also