Aeroplane flying is an increasingly common activity in the UK, especially as both a one-off birthday gift, as well as learning to fly a plane for leisure use, just for the flying experience.

One reason flying a plane has become more popular is the accessibility of flying schools, with most city areas located reasonably close to an airport.

Most of these have one or more companies offer flying lessons.

Fixed-wing aircraft range from small training and recreational aircraft to large wide-body aircraft and military cargo aircraft.

The word also embraces aircraft with folding or removable wings that are intended to fold when on the ground.

This is usually to ease storage or facilitate transport on, for example, a vehicle trailer or the powered lift connecting the hangar deck of an aircraft carrier to its flight deck.

It also embraces “variable geometry” aircraft, such as the General Dynamics F-111, Grumman F-14 Tomcat and the Panavia Tornado, which can vary the sweep angle of their wings during flight.

There are also rare examples of aircraft which can vary the angle of incidence of their wings in flight, such the F-8 Crusader, which are also considered to be “fixed-wing”.