Not A Bird & Not A Plane: A Quick Guide To Super Alternative Military Aircraft

When is a plane, not a plane? This question is similar to “When does a pond become a lake.” While everyone will agree that an A320 or F-22 Raptor is an airplane, disagreement and confusion arise around the margins. Even the Wright Brothers were far from the first men to ‘fly.’ The first man to fly was a Frenchman in 1783 in a balloon. Before 1903, men had already achieved powered flight (airships) and heavier than air flight (with gliders). The Wright brothers achieved a very qualified world-first “sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft” – aka the first flight in an airplane.