1. By Christian Product Evolution: Fixed-Winged Aircraft

2. Unpowered Aircraft Balloons, gliders, hang gliders, paragliders, kites Fly without onboard propulsion Most are mainly used for recreation

3. Propeller Aircraft Make use of reciprocating internal combustion engines that turns a propeller. Quieter than jet aircraft. Fly at lower speeds, and have lower load capacity that jet aircraft.

4. Jet Aircraft Make use of turbines for the creation of thrust Greater weight capacity and fly faster than propeller driven aircraft Very noisy

5. Supersonic jet Aircraft Military fighters and bombers, Concorde, and others. Make use of turbines (often utilizing afterburners), that generate the huge amounts of power for flight faster than the speed of the sound(768 mph).

6. Solar Powered Aircraft Generates the needed energy by means of solar cells Still mainly in experimental stages

7. Unmanned Aircraft No person aboard the aircraft and control is achieved remotely Aircraft is controlled only by remote controls or other electronic devices.

8. Rocket Powered Aircraft Not in common usage today Rocket-assisted takeoffs are used for some military aircraft. SpaceShipOne is the most famous current rocket aircraft, being the test bed for developing a commercial sub-orbital passenger service.

9. Ramjet Aircraft A ramjet is a form of jet engine that contains no major moving parts. The SR-71's Pratt & Whitney J58 engines ran 80% as ramjets at high speeds (Mach 3.2 or 2,304+mph) and have max altitude of 100,000+ ft.

10. Scramjet Aircraft Scramjet aircraft are in the experimental stage The Boeing X-43 is an experimental scramjet with a world speed record for a jet-powered aircraft – Mach 9.7, nearly 12,000 kilometers per hour (7,500 mph) at an altitude of about 36,000 meters (118,000 ft).

11. References http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-wing_aircraft#Solar-powered