A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: a fixed-wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion (MoP), capable of sustained soaring flight without thrust from the means of propulsion.
DG-808B 18m self-launching
Carden-Baynes Auxiliary engine
Powerplant from a Schleicher ASH 26E self-launching motor glider, mounted on a test stand for maintenance at Alexander Schleicher in Poppenhausen, Germany. Counter-clockwise from top left: propeller hub, mast with belt guide, radiator, Wankel engine, muffler shroud.
Grob G 109B touring motor glider, with fibre-reinforced plastic construction.
A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using aerodynamic lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft, and ornithopters. The wings of a fixed-wing aircraft are not necessarily rigid; kites, hang gliders, variable-sweep wing aircraft, and airplanes that use wing morphing are all classified as fixed-wing aircraft.
A Boeing 737 airliner is an example of a fixed-wing aircraft
The fixed wings of a delta-shaped kite are not rigid
Children flying a kite in 1828 Bavaria, by Johann Michael Voltz
Le Bris and his glider, Albatros II, photographed by Nadar, 1868