This page gathers the 1,131 dictionary entries belonging to the domain “Aerospace”, as labelled by Wiktionary. Each word leads to its full entry: definitions, etymology, pronunciation, examples. Page 12 of 12: from “wetted area” to “zoom climb”.
- wetted area noun The total surface area of an aircraft.
- wheelbarrow verb To cause the weight of an aeroplane to become concentrated around the nosewheel.
- wheelbarrowing noun The loss of control caused by excessive forward pressure on the elevator control of an aeroplane with a nosewheel during takeoff or landing.
- wide-cut adj Composed of a mixture of hydrocarbons with a wide range of boiling points, including both moderately-heavy, higher-boiling kerosene-type…
- widebody noun An airliner capable of seating seven or more passengers in a single row of economy seating, with two aisles or more.
- wifferdill noun An elaborate, multiaxis aerobatic manoeuvre, especially one in which an aircraft makes a series of very tight turns in order to reverse its…
- wild weasel noun An attack airplane specialized for attacking anti-aircraft defenses (AADs), typically surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites and radar control…
- Winchester noun Out of ordinance.
- wind shear noun Variation in wind speed or direction over a short spatial distance.
- windmill verb To be rotated by the force of the fluid passing through (the propeller or turbine rotor).
- windsock noun A large, conical, open-ended tube designed to indicate wind direction and relative wind speed, used especially at smaller airfields.
- wing noun Part of an aircraft that produces the lift for rising into the air.
- wing warping noun an early system for lateral (roll) control on a fixed-wing aircraft, involving the flexing of the wing to achieve movement; superseded by…
- winglet noun A winglike structure at a wingtip set at an angle to the plane of the wing designed to reduce drag by its effect on wingtip vortices.
- wings noun A pilot's license, the legal authorization to operate an aircraft.
- wingsuit noun A special jumpsuit, used in extreme sports like a parachute, which adds surface area to the wearer's body to create lift.
- wring out verb To push (an aircraft) to its performance limits; to push the envelope.
- yaw verb To turn about the vertical axis while maintaining course.
- yaw damper noun A component of the flight control system of most swept-wing aircraft which suppresses the aircraft's natural Dutch roll tendency using…
- yo-weight noun A weight unreeled from a discarded rocket stage to unbalance the stage and cause it to tumble, preventing the stage's residual thrust from…
- yo-yo noun A dogfighting maneuver involving the attacker temporarily exchanging altitude for airspeed, or vice versa, in order to rapidly catch up…
- yo-yo despin noun A method of reducing the rotation rate of a rapidly-spinning spacecraft by unreeling a pair of weights from the spinning spacecraft…
- yo-yo weight noun One of the weights unreeled from a spacecraft during yo-yo despin to reduce the spacecraft's rotation rate.
- yoke noun Any of various devices with crosspieces used to control an aircraft; specifically, the control column.
- Zap flap noun A kind of flap whose leading edge is mounted on a track, while a point at mid-chord on the flap is connected via an arm to a pivot just…
- Zepp noun A Zeppelin airship.
- Zeppelin noun A type of large dirigible rigid airship of the early 20th century, built by the German Luftschiffbau Zeppelin and designed to carry…
- zero-zero adj Pertaining to the ejection of the occupant of an aircraft from a grounded stationary position (i.e. zero altitude and zero airspeed).
- zip gun noun An EVA astronaut space maneuvering propulsion unit, a handheld gas jet device, connected to a reservoir.
- zoom verb To zoom climb.
- zoom climb noun A climb at a rate of climb greater than the maximum climb rate using only the thrust of the aircraft's engines; a climb that sacrifices…