A picture of an Airplane

Airplane Facts for Kids

This web page contains airplane facts for kids and is an excellent resource for anyone of any age looking to learn about aircrafts. Our goal is to provide you with accurate, up to date facts about airplanes. In addition to facts about airplanes, we provide additional resources to help you with your research on this type of transportation.

The airplane facts below will help you learn about who invented the first airplane, how an airplane can fly, the different types of airplanes, how airplanes revolutionized transportation and other airplane related facts. We hope these airplane facts are interesting and help you learn more about this revolutionary transportation method.

If any of the below airplane facts are inaccurate, please contact us and let us know.


27 Airplane Facts for Kids

  1. An airplane is a fixed-wing flying vehicle (aircraft) propelled by thrust in the air by its engines.
  2. Airplanes can be used to transport people or cargo, research and military purposes.
  3. An airplane can fly by generating a force known as lift.
  4. An airplane generates lift from its engine(s) propelling it forward, this forward motion is known as thrust.
  5. An airplane’s engines use thrust to generate lift and at the right speed will overcome drag and lift the wings.
  6. The first powered airplane that was heavier-than-air to fly successfully was the Wright Flyer on December 17th, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA.
  7. The Wright Flyer was designed, built and piloted by American aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright.
  8. The Wright brothers flew the Wright Flyer four times on December 17th, 1903.
  9. The first flight was at 10:35 am by Orville Wright and he flew the Wright Flyer 120 feet in 12 seconds.
  10. The second flight and third flight of the Wright Flyer was 175 and 200 feet.
  11. The final flight of the Wright Flyer was at 12:00pm by Wilbur Wright and he flew it 852 feet in 59 seconds.
  12. Modern airplanes either use a jet engine or a propeller (airscrew).
  13. An airplane with a propeller is known as a prop plane, turboprop plane or simply a turboprop.
  14. An airplane with a jet engine is known as a jet aircraft or simply a jet.
  15. There are a several different types of jet engines, including but not limited to turbofans, ramjets and scramjets.
  16. Commercial airplanes, also known as airliners, are used to transport passengers and cargo.
  17. Airliners are manufactured by several different companies, like Boeing, Airbus and Embraer.
  18. According to the ICAO, around 4.3 billion people flew on a passenger airplane in 2018.
  19. The average cruising speed of a long-distance commercial airplane is between 547 and 575 miles per hour.
  20. The average cruising altitude of a long-distance commercial airplane is between 31,000 and 38,000 feet.
  21. Military airplanes, also known as military aircraft, are used by armed forces worldwide.
  22. Military airplanes can be used for combat, intelligence gathering or to transport cargo.
  23. There are several different types of military airplanes used for combat, like fighters and bombers.
  24. There are several different types of non-combat military airplanes, like transport and surveillance planes.
  25. There are many different types of airplanes, both man and unmanned.
  26. A seaplane is an airplane with the ability to take off and land on water.
  27. An unmanned aerial vehicle is a fixed-wing aircraft that doesn’t have a human pilot onboard, instead it’s controlled by a pilot remotely on the ground. An unmanned aerial vehicle is also known as a UAV or simply a drone.

More Technology Facts

Additional Resources with Airplane Facts