When people think of aircraft, most people think of commercial airplanes, those big airplanes that can bring you to different states throughout America, and even across the oceans, however, there are many aircraft for a surprising amount of uses. These uses include; dropping fish out of a plane, giving a rocket a piggyback, flying non-parachute airplanes with many passengers, and making pigs fly.

Icarus is the story of a Greek boy who died flying too close to the sun. He was the son of Daedalus, the inventor. Daedalus invented wax wings to escape, he warned his son that the wings would melt close to the sun. However, Icarus drowned after his wings melted anyway, falling into the sea. Icarus II is different. 1909, November 4th, Icarus the 2nd, a rather unfortunate name for the pig, was the first pig to fly. Moore-Brabazon, the first to fly a motorized plane in England, also was the first to get a pig to fly. Despite his name, Icarus II did not die a horrible death but lived through the flight. There is not much about this story, it did happen over 100 years ago, but this story is not a tragedy.

Dropping fish out of a plane and into open air may seem silly, fish don’t breathe air after all. However, Utah has been dropping thousands of fish out of planes to restock the water. The fish drops 100 feet from a low-flying plane and into high-elevation lakes and streams. Most of the fish seem to survive the drop and according to CNN, this has been happening since the 1950s. A few times a year, “35,000 trout into 40 to 60 lakes within a few hours – a process that is speedier and more efficient than pumping fish through a pipe that empties into a lake, the common method for restocking lakes,” as stated by CNN.

Rockets are the way to space. Normally people think of one standing straight up before lift-off, but there is a case where a rocket got a ride. First, however, the shuttle of the rocket (along with everything else transported in various ways) needs to get to the launch pad first. One way of travel was a piggyback operation involving some changed Boeing 747s. These two aircraft were upgraded with two more vertical stabilizers, a wipe of some of the interior, three struts structurally strengthened on top of the fuselage, and instrumentation. These were considered SCAs or Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Some SCAs were used to study airplane-made turbulence. The plane was crewed with two pilots and only one engineer unless it was carrying a shuttle. In this case, there were only two pilots, and two engineers to make sure nothing went wrong.

When the plane’s safety is gone over and over again with the staff, some people daydream because they know it by heart. Seat belts, life vests, oxygen masks, exit doors, and parachutes; The flight attendants never mention parachutes. There aren’t any parachutes. Every time you ride a commercial aircraft, the pilot is flying a plane without any parachutes for the passengers, or themselves. A commercial flight is more different than people expect from a planned skydive. The flight is higher, so it could be dangerous to skydive because of a lack of oxygen or temperature. Commercial flights are also considered rather safe, and safer than a car. It should be mentioned that most passengers simply don’t know how to use a parachute. Skydivers must go through training and be strapped up to someone else the first time. Some parachutes are more difficult to use than the easiest generally used for skydiving.

Many Aircraft are used for odd jobs. Even throughout history aircraft has been used for more than just humans but fish, planes, and pigs.