It has a freezing point well below 32 degrees Fahrenheit or zero Celsius and therefore is able to prevent the precipitation that falls into it from freezing on the plane's surface.

CNN: Airplane deicing: The how and why

By using lightweight aerospace materials like carbon fiber, which has the strength of steel but weighs one-fifth as much, naval architects can design boats that plane across the surface of the water instead of plowing through it.

FORBES: Mine's Lighter

By using lightweight aerospace materials like carbon fiber, which has the strength of steel but weighs a fifth as much, naval architects can design boats that plane across the surface of the water instead of plowing through it.

FORBES: Mine's Lighter

"The fact that the plane landed on a soft surface and that there was no fire helped keep the number of fatalities low, " he said.

BBC: Turkish plane crash in Amsterdam

This is a special type of Earth model which traces its idealised "horizontal" surface - the plane on which, at any point, the pull of gravity is perpendicular to it.

BBC: Europe's Goce satellite probes Earth's gravity

In August lines hooked to the plane snapped when boats tried pulling it to the surface.

FORBES: Barnstormer

But when his wingtip touched the surface, he lost control and the plane apparently flipped, coming to rest on its back.

BBC: Dornier 17: Salvaging a rare WWII plane from the seabed

The plane was excavated with steam hoses, dismantled and lifted to the surface.

FORBES: A Wildcatter In Love With Warbirds

That makes the precise location of the surface where the image is to be formed much less important, because any particular plane at any given location will receive more or less the same pattern of light rays.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR