Civil aircraft

All nonmilitary planes are civil aircraft. These include private and business planes and commercial airliners.

Private aircraft are personal planes used for pleasure flying, often single-engine monoplanes with nonretractable landing gear. They can be very sophisticated and may include such variants as:

– “warbirds,” ex-military planes flown for reasons of nostalgia, ranging from primary trainers to large bombers;

– “homebuilts,” aircraft built from scratch or from kits by the owner and ranging from simple adaptations of Piper Cubs to high-speed, streamlined four-passenger transports;

– antiques and classics, restored older aircraft flown, like the warbirds, for reasons of affection and nostalgia;

– aerobatic planes, designed to be highly maneuverable and to perform in air shows.

Business aircraft are used to generate revenues for their owners and include everything from small single-engine aircraft used for pilot training or to transport small packages over short distances to four-engine executive jets that can span continents and oceans. Business planes are used by salespeople, prospectors, farmers, doctors, missionaries, and many others. Their primary purpose is to make the best use of top executives' time by freeing them from airline schedules and airport operations. They also serve as an executive perquisite and as a sophisticated inducement for potential customers. Other business aircraft include those used for agricultural operations, traffic reporting, forest-fire fighting, medical evacuation, pipeline surveillance, freight hauling, and many other applications. One unfortunate but rapidly expanding segment of the business aircraft population is that which employs aircraft illegally for transporting narcotics and other illicit drugs. A wide variety of similar aircraft are used for specialized purposes, like the investigation of thunderstorms, hurricane tracking, aerodynamic research and development, engine testing, high-altitude surveillance, advertising, and police work.

Commercial airliners are used to haul passengers and freight on a scheduled basis between selected airports.They range in size from single-engine freight carriers to the Boeing 747 and in speed from below 200 miles per hour to supersonic, in the case of the Anglo-French Concorde.

Vocabulary:

1. monoplane - моноплан (самолёт или планёр с одним крылом)
2. nonretractable - невыдвижной
3. landing gear - шасси
4. warbird – (жарг.) военный самолёт
5. scratch – железки (то, что есть под рукой)
6. kit - набор, комплект (материал для сборки)
7. streamlined – модернизированный
8. affection – привязанность
9. aerobatic – высший пилотаж, фигурные полёты
10. executive - принадлежащий к структурам исполнительной власти, президентский
11. to span – перелететь, преодолеть расстояние
12. prospector - искатель, геолог
13. missionary – миссионер, посол
14. perquisite - привилегия, прерогатива
15. inducement – побуждение, стимул, приманка
16. freight hauling – транспортировка груза
17. surveillance – наблюдение
18. illicit – запрещённый, незаконный
19. hurricane - ураган; тропический циклон

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What does the term “civil aircraft” mean?
2. What are private planes usually used for?
3. What is the usage of business aircraft? Who uses them?
4. What is one of the unfortunate segment of the business aircraft population?
5. What is the commercial aircraft assignment?

II. Find the English equivalents of the following phrases in the text:

o следы урагана

o грузовые перевозки

o приносить прибыль

o нелегально использовать

o сообщение о ситуации на дорогах

o высокоскоростной транспорт

o перевозить пассажиров

o для других применений

o отреставрированные самолёты

o широкое разнообразие

III. Make up your own sentences with the following phrases:

o перевозить пассажиров

o следы урагана

IV. Read the following statements and discuss them with a partner:

1. Business aircraft are used to generate revenues for their owners.
2. Business aircraft also serve as an inducement for potential customers.
3. Sometimes business aircraft are employed illegally for transporting narcotics and other illicit drugs.
4. Commercial airliner is the most convenient kind of air transport used to haul passengers and freight between selected airports.

Giving your opinion you may find the following expressions helpful:

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