Reading skills - DESIGNING AIRCRAFT

 DESIGNING AIRCRAFT
 

     Types of aircrafts

     A long-range airliner is designed to carry 150 passengers over 8,000 kilometres at speeds approaching 1,000 km/hr in level cruising flight. For this task four powerful jet engines and a good aerodynamic streamlined form are needed. Such an aircraft will also have high take-off and landing speeds. It is therefore operational only between airports with very long runways.

     Other airlines are designed for stages of less than 1,500 kilometres. They carry fewer passengers and can operate from shorter runways. A typical airliner used for such "short-haul' operations flies very nearly as fast as a long-range airliner but carries only 80 passengers. Since this type of aircraft must be capale of making many flights in a single day, it is important that it is designed to permit rapid servicing and refuelling and the easy exchange of passengers between the stages of its routes.

     Other types of aircraft are designed to carry bulky freight which can easily be loaded or unloaded. Such aircraft usually have a shorter range and lower cruising speed, so they are usually powered by turbo-prop or piston engines, which are less powerful but more economical than jet engines.

     The types of smaller aircraft are even more varied. Most of them are used for carrying passengers and some are equipped for special purposes, for example, for training pilots, for spraying crops, for aerial photographic surveying, for making weather observations. The twin or single engines may be jet, turbo-prop or piston type.

 

(from the Langenscheildt's "English Monthly")

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