Main Parts of a Plane – Labeled Airplane Diagram

All 12 parts on the diagram

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From the side 7

Fuselage It holds the crew, the passengers and the cargo. The wings and the tail are attached to it.
Cockpit The pilot works the controls from here. Pilot handbooks also call it the flight deck.
Engine It provides the power to turn the propeller. Engine and propeller together are the powerplant.
Propeller It turns the engine's rotating force into thrust. Thrust pulls the airplane forward.
Landing gear It supports the airplane when parked, taxiing, taking off or landing. One wheel under the nose and two behind is called tricycle gear.
Vertical stabilizer (fin) It keeps the nose from swinging from side to side. It is also called the fin.
Rudder It moves the airplane's nose left and right.

From above 5

Wing The wings make most of the lift. Lift holds the airplane in the air.
Aileron The two ailerons move in opposite directions, one up and one down. That rolls the airplane.
Flap Both flaps go down together. They add lift for takeoff and landing.
Horizontal stabilizer It keeps the nose from pitching up and down.
Elevator It moves the airplane's nose up and down.

How this list was compiled: Part names checked on 2026-09-30; a name is kept only when two independent sources use it. (1) FAA, Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25C), chapter 3 Aircraft Construction, https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/05_phak_ch3.pdf (fuselage, wings, ailerons, flaps, empennage, vertical stabilizer, rudder, horizontal stabilizer, elevator, landing gear and tricycle gear, powerplant of engine and propeller, cowling, flight deck). (2) NASA Glenn Research Center, Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics, Airplane Parts and Function, https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/beginners-guide-to-aeronautics/airplane-parts-function/ (fuselage, cockpit, wings, engines and propellers, horizontal and vertical stabilizer, rudder, elevator, ailerons, flaps). (3) Wikipedia, text only: Airplane, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane ; Empennage, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empennage ; Fuselage, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuselage (fuselage, cockpit, wing, propeller, engine, empennage, fin, rudder, tailplane and elevator, landing gear). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's airplane, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

The main parts of a plane are the fuselage, the wings, the tail, the landing gear and the engine. Here they are on a small propeller airplane, from the side and from above.

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From the side

Follow the airplane from nose to tail: the propeller, the engine under its cowling, the cockpit and the fuselage, which is the body. Under it is the landing gear. At the tail the vertical stabilizer stands upright, with the rudder hinged behind it.

Label the parts of an airplane from above

Each wing carries two hinged strips on its back edge: the flap near the fuselage and the aileron near the tip. At the tail the horizontal stabilizer carries the elevator. The whole tail group is called the empennage.

The fixed tail surfaces are stabilizers. The hinged ones behind them are the rudder and the elevator.
A jet airliner has the same main parts, with turbine engines in place of the propeller.

Questions and answers

What are the main parts of a plane?

Five: the fuselage, the wings, the empennage or tail, the landing gear and the powerplant, which is the engine and its propeller. Hinged to the wings and tail are the ailerons, the flaps, the elevator and the rudder.

What is the body of a plane called?

The fuselage. It holds the crew, the passengers and the cargo, and the wings and the tail are attached to it.

What is the tail of a plane called?

The empennage. It is the whole tail group: the fixed vertical and horizontal stabilizers, with the rudder and the elevator hinged to them.

What is the difference between an aileron and a flap?

Both are hinged to the back edge of the wing. Ailerons are on the outer half and move in opposite directions to roll the airplane. Flaps are on the inner half and go down together to add lift for takeoff and landing.