Flight is the process by which an object moves through an atmosphere (or beyond it, as in the case of spaceflight) without contact with the surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift associated with propulsive thrust, aerostatically using buoyancy, or by ballistic movement.
Many things can fly, from natural aviators such as birds, bats, and insects, to human inventions like aircraft, including airplanes, helicopters, balloons, and rockets which may carry spacecraft.
The engineeringaspects of flight are the purview of aerospace engineering which is subdivided into aeronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through the air, and astronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through space, and in ballistics, the study of the flight of projectiles.
