rigid Kites, which use a variety of surfaces to attain lift and maintain stability Flying model airplanes Helicopters, which use a rotating wing with a variable pitch angle to provide directional forces Propellers, whose blades generate lift for propulsion. The NASA Space Shuttle, which uses its wings only to glide during its descent to a runway. These types of aircraft are called spaceplanes. Some racing cars, especially Formula One cars, which use upside-down wings (or airfoils) to provide greater traction at high speeds. Sailboats, which use flexible cloth sails as vertical wings with variable fullness and direction to move across water. Hydrofoils, which use rigid wing shaped structures to lift a vessel out of the water to reduce drag and increase speed. In nature In nature, wings have evolved in insects, pterosaurs, dinosaurs (birds), and mammals (bats) as a means of locomotion. Various species of penguins and other flighted or flightless water birds such as auks, cormorants, guillemots, shearwaters, eider and scoter ducks and diving petrels are avid swimmers, and use their wings to propel through water. Wing forms in nature Tensile structures In 1948, Francis Rogallo invented a kite-like tensile wing supported by inflated or rigid struts, which ushered in new possibilities for aircraft. Near in time, Domina Jalbert invented flexible un-sparred ram-air airfoiled thick wings. These two new branches of wings have been since extensively studied and applied in new branches of aircraft, especially altering the personal recreational aviation landscape. See also Flight Natural world: Bat flight Bird flight Flight feather Flying and gliding animals Insect flight List of soaring birds Samara (winged seeds of trees) Aviation: Aircraft Blade solidity FanWing and Flettner airplane (experimental wing types) Flight dynamics (fixed-wing aircraft) Kite types Ornithopter – Flapping-wing aircraft (research prototypes, simple toys and models) Otto Lilienthal Wing configuration Wing root Wingsuit flying Sailing: Sails Forces on sails Wingsail References External links How Wings Work - Holger Babinsky Physics Education 2003 How Airplanes Fly: A Physical Description of Lift Demystifying the Science of Flight – Audio segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation Science Friday NASA's explanations and simulations Flight of the StyroHawk wing See How It Flies Aerodynamics Aerospace technologies Aircraft wing components Bird anatomy Bird flight Insect anatomy Mammal anatomy es:Ala (zoología)