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Aeroplane Monthly - Airplanes glossary Category: Travel and Transportation > Airplanes Date & country: 14/12/2007, UK Words: 962

Absolute ceiling
The greatest height which can be reached by an aerodyne or aerostat in Standard Atmosphere. The theoretical height at which the rate of climb is zero.

Absolute Humidity
The mass of water vapour per unit volume of air.

Accelerometer
An instrument for measuring acceleration in a definite direction.

Accessory Gearbox
A gearbox, usually attached to the back of an aero engine, to transmit the drive of the engine to accessories such as instruments, electric generators, de-icing apparatus, undercarriage retracting mechanism, etc.

Acorn
A streamlined fitting placed at the intersection of bracing wires to prevent abrasion.

Acrobatics
A term used erroneously to describe voluntary evolutions in the air other than those requied for normal flying. The proper description is 'Aerobatics'.

Action, Radius of
Half the range of an aeroplane in still air.

Aerial
The wire, fixed or trailing, used for radio reception and transmission from aircraft. Sometimes erroneously used as an adjective such as 'Aerial Reconnaissance' which should be Air Reconnaissance'.

Aero-engine
The power-plant for an aerodyne or aerostat.

Aerobatics
Voluntary evolutions performed in the air other than those required for normal flying.

Aerodrome
A prepared area of land or water, including all building and fixtures, intended to be used for the operation of aircraft.

Aerodynamics
The science of the laws relating to forces acting on bodies moving in the air.

Aerodyne
A generic term for heavier-than-air aircraft which derives its lift when flying chiefly from aerodynamic forces - aeroplanes, gyroplanes, helicopters, ornithopters, kites or gliders.

Aerofoil
A surface designed to produce an aeropdynamic force at approximately right angles to its direction of motion. Usually a wind, tailplane or fin.

Aeronautics
The study of all branches and activities of flying.

Aeroplane
A mechanically driven heavier-than-air flying machine which has fixed wings. An aerodyne with fixed wings) the terms includes landplanes, seaplanes and amphibians. The word should be used in preference to the generic term 'aircraft' when an aeroplane is specifically meant. The abbreviation 'plane', commonly used is not correct and should be avoided…

Aerostat
A generic terms for aircraft which derive their lift chiefly from buoyancy in the air: lighter than air craft, balloons or airships.

Aileron
Movable aerofoil fitted near the wing-tip of an aeroplane and designed to make possible a rolling movement about the longitudinal axis. Ailerons are invariably connected differentially to the control column so that when one is raised to depress a wing the other is lowered to raise its wing.

Air Brake
A device, usually in the form of a flap, designed to increase the drag of an aeroplane at will. Used to steepen the glide, shorten the approach and reduce the landing run.

Air Intake
The scoop through which air is fed to the induction system of an aero-engine. Forward facing air-intakes give a degree of supercharge from the forward speed of the aeroplane.

Air Pocket
An erroneous term describing the effect of vertical currents which cause 'bumps' to a flying machine passing through them.

Air Route
A definite route between two or more aerodromes, towns or countries.

Air Scoop
A scoop through which air is taken into the ballonnets of a balloon or an airship by wind pressure.

Aircraft
A generic term for all types of flying machines, both heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air. The term 'aircraft' includes aeroplanes, gyroplanes, helicopters, ornithopters, kites, gliders, airships an balloons.

Aircraft Carrier
A ship specially designed for the housing and servicing of aircraft and providing means for them to take off and alight (land).

Airframe
The structure of an aeroplane without the engine(s).

Airline
A concern operating transport aircraft over an air route.

Airliner
A slang term for a transport aeroplane.

Airplane
Americans derivative of 'aeroplane'.

Airport
An aerodrome provided with Customs amenities and used as a station on a commercial airway.

Airscrew
All. types of screws with helical blades designed to rotate in air and more particularly power-driven screws designed to produce thrust by rotation. Synonymous with the term 'propeller'. Airscrew slip is the ratio of the actual advance per revolution of an airscrew to the theoretical r advance per revolution. Airscrew efficiency is an expression of…

Airship
A mechanically driven aerostat (lighter-than-air craft) .Includes rigid airships, semi-rigid airships and non-rigid airships. A dirigible (i.e. steerable) balloon.

Airspeed
The speed of a flying machine or airship relative to the air as distinct from its speed relative to the ground. Thus an aeroplane flying at 200 m.p.h. airspeed against a 50 m.p.h. headwind will have a ground speed of only 150 m.p.h.

Airspeed Indicator
An instrument which registers the speed of aircraft through the air, as distinct from relative groundspeed .

Airway
An air route with ground organisation.

Airworthy
A term used to denote that an aeroplane has been examined and passed as safe for flying.

Alighting
The act of making contact with water.

Altimeter
An instrument, usually a converted type of aneroid barometer, graduated to indicate height above a given datum, usually sea level.

Altitude
Height of aircraft above sea level. The word should be used with discretion. Thus 'high altitude' means merely 'high height' and should be avoided.

Alto-cumulus
Clouds of average height (between 7,000 and 20,000 ft.), usually in the form of a layer made up of small masses arranged regularly in groups, lines or rolls.

Alto-stratus
Clouds of average height! (between 7,000 and 20,000ft.), usually in the form of a bluish-grey fibrous veil.

Amphibian
An aeroplane designed for taking off from and alighting on both land and water. Examples: Supermarine Walrus, Grumman Goose, Consolidated Canso.

Anemometer
An instrument for measuring the speed of the wind.

Angle of Attack
The angle between the chord line of an aerofoil and the relative airstream, no matter what the angle of the aeroplane. This is also the True Angle of Downwash - the angle through which the airstream relative to the main axis of the aeroplane is deflected by the aerofoil.

Angle of Incidence (Rigging)
The angle between the chord line of the mainplane of an aeroplane and the horizontal when the aeroplane is in the specified 'rigging position' on the ground. It should not be confused with the 'True Angle of Incidence' See Angle of Attack.

Angle of Incidence
The angle between the chord line of a wing and the centre-line of the aeroplane.

Angle of Pitch
The angle between the relative airstream and the longitudinal axis of the areoplane.

Angle of Roll
The angle between a line joining the wing-tips and the horizontal.

Angle of Sideslip
The angle between the longitudinal axis of the areoplane and its direction of motion.

Anodic Treatment
A treatment for metal parts of aeroplanes whereby a protective coating of oxide is imposed by electrolytic action.

Antenna
Aerial wire for radio communication.

Anti-drag Wires
Wires or cables, usually in the inside of non-stressed-skin wings, which resists forces set up by the drag of the aeroplane as it flies.

Anti-lift wires
Wires or cables, usually running from the top of the top centre-section plane to the outer wing struts of a biplane, designed to resist forces opposite to the normal direction of lift. They are sometimes called 'landing wires' because they help support the weight of the wings on the ground. They are units of the bracing system of a biplane.

Anticer
A device for preventing the formation of ice on aircraft, usually in the form of liquid paste. Should not be confused with 'de-icers', which are devices for removing ice when it has formed.

Anticyclone
Refers to weather. A region of relatively high barometric pressure in which the pressure is highest at the middle. The winds circulate clockwise around the centre in the Northern Hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Anticyclone is the opposite of Depression.

Aperiodic
Non-oscillating. Applied for example, to the need of an instrument, usually a compass, which is so designed that, after a slight lag, it indicates the correct reading with no over-swing.

Approach Beacon
Radio equipment on the ground which, in conjunction with a radio receiver in an aeroplane, indicates its displacement to one side or another of a predetermined radio beam. The approach beacon is used for the final approach to landing, usually in conjunction with two marker beacons, when an aeroplane is coming in to land in bad visibility or in dark…

Apron
A prepared area near the hangars on an aerodrome, usually made with a hard surface, designed to facilitate the manoeuvering of aeroplanes on the ground.

Arrester Gear
Cables laid across the deck of and aircraft carrier to engage with the deck arrester hook of a deck-landing aeroplane to return it's run on touch-down.

Artificial Horizon
An instrument, operated by a gyroscope, devised to keep an indicator permanently parallel with the true horizon and thus show the pilot the attitude of his aeroplane when flying in cloud or bad visibility.

ASI
Common abbreviation for for an 'Air Speed Indicator'.

Aspect Ratio
The ration of the span to the mean chord of an aerofoil; the ration of the square of the span to the total area of an aerofoil. Determined by the formula: 'span multiplied by span divided by total wing area' for all aerofoils - tapered, elliptical, circular, rectangular or square. Aspect Ration is also important to the structural engineer in buildi…

Atmosphere
The mass of air which surrounds the earth and rotates with it. International Standard Atmosphere is an imaginary condition of the atmosphere to which the performance of all aeroplane is referred for exact comparison. It assumes, at mean sea level, Temperature = 15º C; Pressure = 1013.2 millibars. The temperature is calculated to fall by 6.5º C. for…

Attitude (Flying)
The inclination of the axes of an aeroplane to the relative airstream.

Attitude (Ground)
The inclination of the axes of an aeroplane relative to the ground.

Autogyro
A trade name copyrighted by the Cierva Autogiro Company Limited for the gyroplanes made by that Company.

Automatic Boost Control
A device which automatically regulates the boos pressure from the supercharger of an aero engine so that a predetermined value is not exceeded.

Automatic Mixture Control
A device which automatically adjust the fuel mixture fed to an aero engine so that the quantities of air and fuel are varied by a predetermined amount with increase in height.

Automatic Parachute
A parachute which is opened by a static line attached to and aerostat or aerodyne. Also a parachute the pack of which is attached to an aerostat or aerodyne and opened by the freely falling body.

Automatic Pilot
An apparatus, operated by gyroscopes, which automatically moves the flying controls of an aeroplane to keep it on an even keel and on a fixed course.

Auxiliary Fuel Tank
A tank in which a reserve a reserve supply of fuel is carried.

Aviation
The operation of all types of aircraft.

Axes
Imaginary lines about which an aeroplane may change its attitude of flight. An aeroplane has three axes. They are:

Azimuth
Used in aeronautics usually with respect to instruments to denote angular displacement in a horizontal plane. In astronomical navigation, azimuth is the true bearing of the star under observation from the North point on the horizon as seen by the observer.

Backing
A change of wind in an anticlockwise direction. This is the opposite of Veering, which is a change of wind in a clockwise direction.

Baffle
A metal plate used between the cylinders of an air-cooled aero engine to guide the cooling air. Properly: 'inter-cylinder baffle'.

Balance Tab
A hinged area at the rear portion of a control surface designed to move in the opposite direction to the control surface and so balance it.

Balanced Surfaces
Control surfaces of an aeroplane (ailerons, elevators, rudder and flaps) in which the aerodynamic movements about the hinge are wholly or partly self-balanced.

Bale Out
An expression which has become common parlance for the abandoning of an aeroplane and descending by parachute. It was derived from the act of baling out a boat.

Ballast
A weight carried in an aeroplane, balloon or airship to trim it with respect to its centre of gravity or to alter its buoyancy. In aeroplanes, ballast usually takes the form of lead disks. In balloons and airships sand or water is usually carried as ballast, as they can be easily discharged.

Ballonet
A compartment within the envelope of a balloon or airship into which air can be blown to counteract changes of volume of the gas in the envelope. This is necessary to maintain pressure and alter trim, and in non-rigid types to preserve envelope shape.

Balloon
An aerostat which consists of an envelope containing a gas which is lighter than air and which is not equipped for mechanical propulsion. Types of balloons are: Barrage Balloons, Captive Balloons, Free Balloons and Kite Balloons.

Bank
The angle between the lateral axis of an aeroplane and the horizontal plane. Banking is the angular motion about the longitudinal axis of an aeroplane when turning.

Barograph
A recording barometer used in aeronautics to record the varying heights reached by any aircraft during flight. The barograph is carried in the aeroplane and traces out a record on a revolving drum.

Bay
The lateral space between the interplane struts on one side of a biplane. Thus a Gauntlet is a two-bay biplane, a Gladiator is a single-bay biplane.

Beacon
An apparatus, usually on an airway, which emits light signals to indicate a particular geographical position to aircrews.

Beaufort Scale
A numerical system, ranging from 0 (Calm) to 12 (Hurricane) to classify the speed of the wind and covering a range of 0 to 75 m.p.h. or over. The system was originated by Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort and is based on observing the effect of winds on common objects.

Best Gliding Angle
That gliding angle at which an aerodyne will cover a maximum horizontal distance for a given loss of height.

Biased Fabric
Multi-ply fabric used for covering aircraft with one or more plies cut diagonally so that the warp is at an angle to the length.

Big End
In an aero engine, the crankpin end of the connecting rod.

Biplane
An aeroplane or glider which has two mainplanes (main wings) one above the other.

Bise
A cold, dry wind which blows in the winter from a northerly direction in Southern France.

Blade Angle
Of an propeller, the acute angle between the flat undersurface of one blade and the right angle from the propeller shaft. - the plane of rotation. The blade angle is in effect the angle at which a propeller blade bites into the air. It is variable in most propellers by turning the blade in its socket to alter the 'pitch'.

Blade Loading
Used with reference to a gyroplane or helicopter. It is the loaded weight of the machine divided by the total area of the rotor blades, not to be confused with disc loading, which, which is the equivalent of wing loading.

Bleeding
A term used with reference to the hydraulic system of an aircraft which concerns the expulsion of air from a system.

Bonding
The joining together of all metal parts of an aeroplane to form a continuous electrical conductor so that no sparks are caused between separate parts of the structure when they are charged with static electricity.

Bonding Noise
Interference in radio reception caused by the relative movement of the metal parts of an aeroplane in contact with each other.

Boom Well (or Trough)
A depression in the plating of a float of a seaplane to take the end fittings of struts or booms.

Booms
Usually Tail Booms, a longitudinal structure which is used on some aeroplanes in place of the fuselage to carry the tail unit.

Boost
The pressure, which may be above that of atmospheric pressure, in the induction manifold of an aero engine. It is measured in lb/in2 above or below standard sea-level atmospheric pressure or in inches of mercury absolute. In the USA, boost pressure is usually termed Manifold Pressure.