In the Heights Trivia Quiz

A blimp is like a big, floating balloon that you might see in the sky. However, it's not filled with regular air like you might find in a balloon; instead, it's filled with a special gas called helium. Helium is lighter than the air around us, so it makes the blimp go up into the sky.

The blimp usually has a big, soft body, and often has an oval shape. It's not like an airplane because it doesn't have wings, and it doesn't go super fast. Instead, it moves around slowly and gracefully. People can use blimps for different things. In advertising, you might see a blimp with a big sign on it flying over a sports event. In television, blimps may have cameras installed all around them so that they can get an aerial view without the noise of engines.

Inside the blimp, there's a small compartment where the pilot sits. The pilot can control the blimp by adjusting the amount of helium inside or by using engines to move it in different directions. It's kind of like steering a big floating boat in the sky!

A helicopter as a fascinating flying machine that can go up, down, forward, backward, and even sideways. It has large blades on the top and in the tail that spin really fast, kind of like a super-fast fan. These spinning blades, called rotor blades, help the helicopter lift off the ground and stay up in the air and to point it in the right direction.

The idea of a helicopter dates back all the way to the 15th century when the famous Renaissance man, Leonardo Da Vinci, drew one in his sketchbooks. It wasn't until 1939 when a fellow by the name of Igor Sikorsky actually managed to figure out the mechanics of it that the first helicopter was built.

A hot air balloon is a very interesting object that may be found in the heights. It consists of the balloon part, also known as the envelope and a place for the pilot and passengers to stand, also called a basket or a gondola. The envelope holds the heated air, hotter than the outside air, which is what causes the balloon to rise. This is an idea that has been well-known since ancient times.

Interestingly, the very first hot air balloon wasn't built until 1783. Two French brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, showed off their invention and, later that year, actually used one to travel nearly 9 kilometers. Their envelope was made of silk and paper and a fire made of wool and straw, a dangerous idea, especially if it rains. Modern hot air balloons have an envelope made out of nylon and a propane burner to heat the air inside the balloon.

On their way to space, giant rockets push spacecraft off of the Earth and into the heavens. Used to explore the regions outside of the atmosphere spacecraft are launched from the ground and need a giant push of thrust to help them escape the gravity that is holding them (and you) down. Once out of the atmosphere, astronauts can then perform the duties that sent them up there in the first place.

The farthest that astronauts have ventured has been our Moon. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first to go. They stepped out on the surface of the moon in July of 1969. The next step that has been discussed is a mission to Mars, however, it's a really long flight out there making it a difficult step to take.

A drone could be seen as a flying robot or a small aircraft without a pilot. It's like a remote-controlled aircraft that uses a controller to run it; sometimes even smartphones or tablets can serve as the controls in order to tell the drone where to go. Using simple controls and reactive computer technology, drones can be very maneuverable and very simple to master with just a bit of practice.

Most drones are recreational, meaning that they can be owned by everybody. They often have a camera connected to them or an attachment to hold a camera or smartphone. Photographers can use these kinds of drones to take amazing aerial pictures, for example, real estate agents showing houses or reporters showing a crowd.

A kite is a really cool toy that you can fly in the sky. It's usually made of a light frame covered with paper or fabric. The frame gives it the shape, and the paper or fabric catches the wind to make it fly. You hold onto a string attached to the kite, and when the wind blows, you can let the string out, and the kite goes up, up, up into the air.

The best part of flying a kite is that you can make it do tricks by pulling the string in different ways. Sometimes, people even have kite festivals where they show off their beautiful and creative kites.

You're floating through the air, gently falling and being carried by the breeze. You look up and see a giant bag above you catching the air and preventing you from accelerating too quickly and hitting the ground too fast. That's your parachute.

Parachutes are devices that add resistance to your fall and slow you down. It's essentially a giant bag often made out of silk. The parachute is often stored in a pack strapped you your back or chest. Often, a cord is pulled to deploy the parachute, though occasionally they deploy automatically at a certain height. In an airplane, they're used as safety devices if the plane is going down. However, as a recreational sport, parachutes can be used for skydiving - voluntarily jumping out of an airplane to have fun in the sky.

Amusingly called a "lawnmower with wings" by my father, this is a version of a plane that is very light and has a small propeller powered by a small (and often noisy) motor. These planes are not as big or fast as regular airplanes. They might look like a small motorized hang glider with a little seat for the pilot and, rarely, a passenger (as seen in the photo).

Ultralights are for fun flying. They are recreational and the license requirements to handle them are far more lenient than a regular plane. The pilot can steer by moving handles or using foot pedals. Some even have wings you can fold up, like folding a paper airplane, meaning they can be transported easily to a venue that is interesting to tour from above.

Imagine you want to be a bird... how would you go about it? Having a pair of wings and flapping them fast enough to stay aloft, that just sounds like hard work... On the other hand, if you strap yourself into a hang glider and jump off of the edge of a cliff, that's a lot easier and really quite fun.

A hang glider is basically a lightweight wing with a bar on it for hanging on, and straps for safety. The pilot is fully in control and uses the wind to stay in the air for as long as possible, but has the ability to steer using a shift in weight or handles attached to the wing. Eventually, gravity will pull the hang glider down, gently, and the flight is over.

Imagine a big metal bird in the sky, one so big it could swallow a hundred or more people and still have room for more. That is basically what an airplane is. Before airplanes, people had to travel and move cargo by sea. This limited people as they had to use waterways and seas that were connected. An airplane can fly over both land and sea and just needs a long runway to start from - also called 'taking off', and to finish the journey - also called 'landing'. This makes it an ideal way of moving people or cargo around the world.

An airplane moves through the air using engines. There are two kinds of engines that a plane might have. A propeller is like a giant spinning fan at the front of an airplane. It grabs the air with its spinning blades and pushes the airplane forward. On the other hand, a jet engine is like a super-fast, powerful fan. Instead of blowing air, it sucks in a lot of air at the front. Then, it mixes that air with fuel, creating a big whoosh of hot, fast-moving air. This whoosh of air shoots out of the back really fast, pushing the airplane forward.