In a car, there might be parts that I do not care about. It is only in cases where my physical safety is concerned that I am really particular. And instead of being paranoid, I choose to be informed.

So, this article is about Aircraft parts. Knowledge and familiarity should clear some apprehensions that ignorance might create.

You know what a plane looks like. So, we go from the front to the back. To begin with, we have the cockpit. This is where the pilot sits and controls the craft. Hence, all navigational controls end up here. This is the heart of all avionics, which is a contraction for aviation electronics. Maybe, I should call it the brain of all avionics as only the final controls reside in the cockpit.

Other than navigational controls, communication and cabin controls are also predominantly available in the cockpit. So, expect to see a lot of dials, knobs, screens, light emitting diodes, bulbs, and switches. If you have ever had an opportunity to look inside a cockpit, even if you were only looking at a photograph, you would certainly have marveled at the extent of gadgetry involved.

Behind the cockpit is the rest of the fuselage, which is the body of the plane. All professions like to create words that make them exclusive. So, while an automobile engineer missed out on an opportunity, the aeronautical engineer chose to call the plane body a fuselage.

As expected, the body presents the physical structure to the plane. But it is not a passive piece of equipment as in the case of a car. Instead, it has sensors for detecting what the outside conditions are like. Additionally, it has signaling and communication equipment connected to it.

Then comes the hardworking engine, the part that needs to be the most reliable. It goes without saying that this is where all the muscle is. In addition to providing the rotors and propellers and thrust and torque, the degree of automation in an aeroplane engine is extremely high. Not just should a pilot as well as the auto-pilot, be able to constantly monitor the performance of the engine, they should actually be able to control and influence it.

In this sequence, we then reach the wings of the plane. Any flying body needs to have wings, unless it is a projectile, such as a rocket. These wings provide balance, stability, and maneuverability. Since wings needs to be mechanically manipulated, they are full of control systems, valves, bearing, pressure points, buffers, and the like.

To continue my simplistic travel down the aircraft's body, let us reach the very end. We are now at the tail. Like the wing it provides stability and balance. But the tail, more specifically the rudder, plays a pivotal role in turning the plane. This mechanism is not like that of a rudder-based boat that has the luxury of traveling in a dense medium, water. But there are similarities.

All in all, the schema of the parts of an airplane is fairly obvious. This does not at all mean that the effect of flying is anything less than monumental.