An airliner is a type of airplane for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. The modern and most common variant of the airliner is a long, tube shaped, and jet powered aircraft. The largest of them are wide-body jets which are also called twin-aisle because they generally have two separate aisles running from the front to the back of the passenger cabin. These are usually used for long-haul flights between airline hubs and major cities. A smaller, more common class of airliners is the narrow-body or single-aisle. These are generally used for short to medium-distance flights with fewer passengers than their wide-body counterparts.
A United Airlines Boeing 737 (foreground) and a Virgin America Airbus A320 (background), two of the world's most widely used airliners
Sikorsky Ilya Muromets
The Douglas DC-3 appeared in 1935
Prototype of the de Havilland Comet in 1949, the first jet airliner in the world
An airplane or aeroplane, informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. 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. Worldwide, commercial aviation transports more than four billion passengers annually on airliners and transports more than 200 billion tonne-kilometers of cargo annually, which is less than 1% of the world's cargo movement. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled such as drones.
The first flight of an airplane, the Wright Flyer on 17 December 1903
North American P-51 Mustang, a World War II fighter aircraft
An All Nippon Airways Boeing 777-300ER taking off from New York JFK Airport
Le Bris and his glider, Albatros II, photographed by Nadar, 1868