Aircraft Parts

Airplanes are devices that are used for transporting people and cargo from one place to another. There are various parts in an airplane that have functionalities different from each other. Parts of an airplane include horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer, rudder, elevator, flaps, aileron, spoiler, slats, fuselage, cockpit, turbine engine, wing and winglet. Depending on the purpose of the aircraft, there are airplanes designed in different shapes and sizes.

For an airplane to fly, it must lift the weight of the airplane, fuel, passengers and the cargo by itself. The function of the “wings” is to generate most of the lift to hold the plane in the air. The airplane must be pushed through the air to give the lift which is required. There would be a resistance in the air in the form of aerodynamic “drag”. Hence most of the airliners use “winglets” on the tip of the wings to reduce drag. Beneath the wings, “turbine engines” are located, which helps to overcome the drag and push the airplane forward through the air. Instead of turbine engines, smaller, low-speed airplanes use “propellers” for the propulsion system .

In an aircraft, smaller wings are located at the tail of the plane to control the flight. The job of the stabilizers is to provide stability for the aircraft, to keep it flying straight. The function of the “vertical stabilizer” is to keep the nose of the plane from swinging from side to side, which is called yaw. The function of the “horizontal stabilizer” is to prevent an up-and-down motion of the nose, which is called “pitch”. The hinged part of the vertical stabilizer is called the “rudder” which is used to deflect the tail to the left and right as viewed from the front of the “fuselage”. The hinged part of the horizontal stabilizer is called the “elevator” which is used to deflect the tail up and down. “Aileron” is the outboard hinged part of the wing which is used to move the wings from side to side. Even “spoilers” can be used to roll the airliners from one side to another .Spoilers are small plates that are used to interrupt the flow over the wing and to change the amount of force by decreasing the lift when the spoiler is deployed. They are also used during landing to slow the plane down and to counteract the flaps when the aircraft is on the ground. The wings have additional hinged, rear sections near the body that are called flaps. “Flaps” are used in case of takeoff and landing to increase the amount of force produced by the wing .The function of the “Slats” is to takeoff and landing in order to produce additional force. The function of the “fuselage” of the airplane is to hold all the pieces together. At the front of the fuselage, the pilots sit in the “cockpit”. In the rear of the fuselage, passengers and cargo are carried. Some aircraft carry fuel in the fuselage; others carry the fuel in the wings.

In the aircraft parts industry there are companies that focus on the aerospaceparts market.

Aircraft Parts Industry Current Trends

According to the reports, the commercial aircraft parts manufacturer approval i.e. PMA market to hit $624.9m in 2013. The US aircraft engine and parts manufacturing industry has around 1,000 companies with combined annual revenue of about $60 billion. In aircraft parts industry there is a demand for commercial, military, and private airplanes. The average annual revenue in this industry per employee is about $350,000.

Major Aircraft Parts Industry Players

Companies in the engine and engine parts segment are GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, and the US operations of Rolls-Royce .The aircraft parts manufacturing industry includes companies such as Honeywell and Northrop Grumman .

Major aircraft engine and parts companies based outside the US are Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Japan, Rolls-Royce in UK, SAFRAN, Thales, and Zodiac in France.