What are the five types of aircraft?
Although aircraft can be further categorized in all sorts of ways, such as the biggest, fastest, and highest-flying, I’ve broken it down into five general categories. Read on to learn about civil and commercial, military, special-purpose, lighter-than-air, and rotorcraft. For pilot certification, the FAA defines several major categories: Airplane, Rotorcraft, Glider, Lighter-Than-Air, Powered Lift, Powered Parachute, and Weight-Shift Control.