An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift (as with balloons, blimps and dirigibles) or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil (as with vehicles that plane the air with wings in a straight manner, such as airplanes and gliders, or vehicles that generate lift with wings in a rotary manner, such as helicopters or gyrocopters). Note that many rockets and missiles, are not considered aircraft because they use rocket thrust instead of aerodynamic loading as the primary means of lift.

The human activity which surrounds aircraft is called aviation. Manned aircraft are flown by an onboard pilot. Unmanned vehicles are often called drones, remotely piloted vehicles (RPV) or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

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