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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 balloons and airships (also known as dirigibles.) Aviation can be broadly divided into three areas:

• Commercial Aviation
• General Aviation
• Military Aviation

Contents

1 Commercial Aviation 2 General Aviation 3 Military Aviation 4 See also

Commercial Aviation

Commercial Aviation or Commercial air transport is offered by airlines such as American Airlines, Royal Brunei, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Singapore Airlines, while airlines such as Cargolux and Delta Airlines operate passenger and cargo flights.

This type of aviation started after World War I using mostly ex-military aircraft for the purpose of transporting people and goods for profit. A profitable cargo was air mail, which was the means by which governments subsidized air travel. Between October 1929, when the Graf Zeppelin inaugurated the first commercial transatlantic service, and May 6,1937, when the Hindenburg burned, airships were a major mode of long-distance air travel. After World War II the introduction of Jetliners allowed large numbers of people to be quickly transported.

General Aviation

General Aviation is a term comprising all of aviation other than military 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, police, 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. General Aviation also serves the humanitarian needs as well. Many organizations use light aircraft to carry supplies, doctors, and the sick. http://www.angelflightamerica.org is one such organization.

Military Aviation

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

See also

• Aircraft
• Airlines
• Airport
• Air safety
• Air traffic control
• Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast
• Aviation system
• Aviation history
• Aviation noise
• Avionics
• Category:Aviation
• Flight
• Flight level
• Flight simulator
• Flying
• Global Positioning System
• Incidents in Aviation
• Jet engine
• Oshkosh Airshow
• List of aviation topics
• List of people who died in plane crashes
• Timeline of aviation
• Propeller
• Radar
• Reciprocating engines
• Runway
• Spatial disorientation
• Santos Dumont
• Taxiway
• Wright brothers

List of Aircraft | Aircraft Manufacturers | Aircraft Engines | Aircraft Engine Manufacturers Airlines | Air Forces | Aircraft Weapons | Missiles | Timeline of aviation

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