In terms of weight, the speed it can build up and the length of flight it can sustain, a bird can out-perform a modern plane. This tiny heart contains mysteries that scientists in many fields would pay dearly to understand.
~ Yuri Keiskiaik

An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a powered, fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine or propeller. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spectrum of uses for airplanes includes recreation, transportation of goods and people, military, and research. Commercial aviation is a massive industry involving the flying of tens of thousands of passengers daily on airliners. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled.

Quotes

• If I gave you the parts list for the Boeing 777 and it had 100,000 parts, I don’t think you could screw it together and you certainly wouldn’t understand why it flew.
  • Eric Lander, cited in Awake! magazine, 2000, 9/22.

• A second, is a relatively long amount of time. If you’re flying a plane by instruments and you’re off by one second, you’re going to miss the runway by nearly one-fifth of a mile [320 m].
  • Dr. Dennis McCarthy, astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory. Cited in Awake! magazine, 1988, 5/22.

• The aeroplane had come of age in an orgy of destruction. Over the battlefields of France lay the tortured wreckage of many an aerial combat; London and other cities, towns and villages had been bombed; ships had been attacked from the sky. War . . . was changed completely by the arrival of the flying men in their incredible machines.
  • Aidan Chambers in his book Flyers and Flying sums up the significance of the airplane in World War I.

• The bird’s heart is the most powerful motor in the world, ... In terms of weight, the speed it can build up and the length of flight it can sustain, a bird can out-perform a modern plane. This tiny heart contains mysteries that scientists in many fields would pay dearly to understand.
  • Yuri Keiskiaik, biologist, comments in the magazine Soviet Life. Cited in Awake! magazine, 1978, 6/22.

• Believing the first cell originated by chance is like believing a tornado ripping through a junkyard full of airplane parts could produce a Boeing 747.
  • Fred Hoyle, cited in The Watchtower magazine, 1989, 5/15.