Flight

Flight is the process of flying: movement through the air by aerodynamically generating lift or aerostatically[?] using buoyancy, and movement of spacecraft.

Animal flight

There are currently no other flying animals than insects, birds, and bats, and not all of them can fly. Each of these group's wings evolved separately from different structures. Pterosaurs are an extinct group of flying vertebrates contemporaneous with the dinosaurs.

The largest birds, the ostrich and the emu, can not fly, nor can for example the penguin.

Among flying animals, the wandering albatross has the greatest wingspan, up to 3.5 metres (11.5 feet), and the trumpeter swan perhaps the greatest weight, 17 kilograms (38 pounds).

Fictional: Dumbo, the flying elephant.

Mechanical flight

Flying machines are aircraft, including aeroplanes, helicopters, airships and balloons, and spacecraft.

In the case of an aeroplane it involves

• Taxiing
• Take off
• Climb
• Cruise[?]
• Descent
• Landing

The same applies for other flying machines and flying animals, except for the taxiing.

See also aviation, air transport, aircraft, public transport service numbering.