Though they're typically vehicles of the sky, airplanes sometimes need to be dragged around on Earth, too. These photos capture the odd and often amazing methods that people have been using to drive planes around for over a century.

The Wright airplane being towed to the parade grounds of Fort Meyer, Virginia in 1908


(Photo by National Archive/Newsmakers)

A German Pfalz plane, shot down near Arras on 17th October 1918, on display at the Lord Mayor's Show, 9th November 1918


(Photo by A. R. Coster/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

P-38 Lightnings in Liverpool, May 1943

(via Vintage Air)

US P-51 Mustangs being towed through suburbs of Liverpool to the Dunlop factory, 1943/44


(via Skyscrapercity)

P-47 Thunderbolts in Liverpool


(via Army Air Forces in World War II Vol. II)

P-47 fighter planes are towed down the streets of Karachi, India after unloaded from ships


(Photo by AP)

A MiG-25 Foxbat that was buried beneath the sands in Iraq being towed by a US search team in 2003.


(Photo by AP/US Air Force - Master Sgt. T. Collins)

The last decommissioned Concorde G-BOAA arrives at it's final destination at The Museum of Flight, April 19, 2004, in Edinburgh, Scotland, heralded by pipers after its long trek on a road specifically built by the British Army.


(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The Air Force Flight Test Center Museum's SR-71A Blackbird made its way to the Center's Corrosion Control Facility, 8 August, 2009


(via Edwards Air Force Base, photo by Sgt. Trisha Winters)

Loading of a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft at pier seven, Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia, 11 August 2009


(via Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Edward D. Luchetti)

A MiG-23 jet fighter is towed from Aviation Museum to Batajnica military airfield, outside Belgrade, August 14, 2009.


This is one of the 19 Soviet-built MiG-21s and MiG-23s sent to Yugoslavia by Saddam Hussein for maintenance 25 years ago, but they got stuck there because of an embargo imposed in 1990 against Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait.

(Photo by AP Photo/Air Serbia/Mihailo Rudic)

A US F16 fighter jet is towed to a parking position on an airfield in Bucharest, Romania, April 10, 2010.


(Photo by AP/Vadim Ghirda)

A small plane owned by the U.S. Justice Department on a flatbed tow truck after an emergency landing on Insterstate 80, January 31, 2011, Hackensack, New Jersey.


(Photo by AP/Julio Cortez)

The Airbus jet that pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger landed on the Hudson River is pulled along a road as it makes its way to the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 10, 2011.


(Photo by Davis Turner/Getty Images)



An F-4 Phantom II removed form its pedestal on U.S. Route 1 and transported to scheduled maintenance repairs, August 2012


(via Homestead Air Reserve Base, photo taken by Senior Airman Jacob Jimenez)

A C-130 E being towed by the 19th Equipment Maintenance Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, 25 August, 2012



(via Little Rock Air Force Base, photo by Airman 1st Class Rusty Frank)

A Soviet aircraft being towed in Russia, May 2013

A disused plane transported in Lagos, Nigeria, June 2013



(via Kathryn's Report and Vacancy Nigerians)

A partially disassembled Air Force C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft travels San Antonio highways to Medical Readiness Training Center at JBSA-Camp Bullis, March 2014


(via 37th Training Wing)