A plane, according to the official definition ofthe International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), is an aircraft heavier thanair, pulled by a driving body (in the case of a machine without engine, one will speak about sailplane), whose lift in flight is obtained mainly by aerodynamic reactions on surfaces which remain fixed under conditions given of flight. That or that which directs it is called pilot or aviateur/aviatrice.

When lift in flight is obtained by aerodynamic reactions on surfaces moving, generally one or more principal propellers whose axes are vertical, the apparatus is then a helicopter or a gyropt