Hobbyists who are into collecting and building aircraft models swear that there exist no greater excitement then seeing their hand-made models fly successfully in the air. These airplane kits can be classified into three major groups. First, there is the free flight types of aircrafts which flies in the air without any attachment to the ground. The disadvantage of this mode of aircrafts models is that the flying direction cannot be controlled. Second, there is the control line models. These control line types have a cable leading from the wing to the pilot. This particular type gives the hobbyist a slightly higher level of control than the free flight ones. Finally, there is the radio controlled aircrafts. These radio controlled planes provide the hobbyist pilot the most amount of control and a skilled hobbyist can pilot the plane to execute very difficult maneuvers in midair. This is because the radio control aircraft has a transmitter operated by the hobbyist pilot on the ground, who sends signals to the receiver built into the airplane.

These flying aircraft kits comes in all sorts of designs ranging from vintage radio controlled planes kits to modern fighter jets like the F16. Most of them resembles the real plane closely because their main purpose is to look like the real piloted aircraft. However, every rule has its exception. Some of the more fancier types of aircraft are made to look like birds, dinosaurs and even a witch on a flying broomstick.

The construction of these kits that have the ability to fly are very different from models that are static. These flying ones borrows heavily on techniques from full-sized vintage aircrafts although they may or may not be vintage aircrafts. These aircrafts also make use of lighter materials in their construction because it aids the aircraft in flying. For example, the light weighted materials like thin strips of light balsa wood may be used for forming the frame of the plane model. Decorations for the body frame may include very thin and light materials which the fabric is then doped to form a light and sturdy airtight frame. Sometimes thin paper is used instead of fabric. Since these types of airplanes has the need to be launched in the air, they employ robust designs patterns adapted from vintage aircrafts and use solid sheets of wood to form the spars and the ribs for the wings and the tail surfaces.

A lot of these flying models are built from scratch. The hobbyist usually visits a model plane kit shop and picks up a aircraft modeling kit or he may choose to go to a hardware store and purchase all the parts that he needs to build the end product. Plans for building such aircrafts are widely published and can easily be found on the Internet. The Internet is a major driving force for the aircraft model hobby because it allows people from all over the world to share their aircraft model building experiences and also to post photos of their own hobbyist aircrafts.

In recent years, more and more aircraft models have been manufactured to cater to the increased demand for this hobby. Aircraft models can range from the vintage aircraft plane models to the latest fighter jets models. There are a lot of different models out there to suit the varying needs of different collectors.