The curriculum
2,678 terms. Where the regulation defines a term (14 CFR 1.1 and 1.2, 280 of them), its definition is quoted word for word, and it governs. The FAA handbooks' definitions follow as guidance, each with the page of the handbook that prints it.
A symbol representing the rotational speed of the low-pressure compressor in a dual-spool gas turbine engine.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
Rotational speed of the low pressure compressor in a turbine engine.
A symbol representing the rotational speed of the high-pressure compressor in a dual-spool gas turbine engine.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
Rotational speed of the high pressure compressor in a turbine engine.
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. This organization, dedicated to the technical development of aviation, has been superseded by NASA.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
A long-chord cowling used over a radial engine. The forward portion of this cowling has an aerodynamic shape that produces a forward pull, and the rear portion extends back to fair in with the fuselage. There is a narrow peripheral gap between the rear of the cowling and the fuselage for the cooling air to escape. Some NACA cowlings have controllable flaps over this opening to control the amount of cooling air that flows through the engine.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
An enclosed compartment, normally in the leading edge of the wing, in which an aircraft engine is mounted.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
A streamlined enclosure on an aircraft in which an engine is mounted. On multiengine propeller-driven airplanes, the nacelle is normally mounted on the leading edge of the wing.
See National Aeronautical Charting Group.
A method of applying pressure to the glue in a scarf joint repair in a plywood skin. A strip of thin plywood is nailed over the glued scarf joint with the nails extending into a supporting structure beneath the skin. The strip is installed over vinyl sheeting to prevent it sticking to the skin. When the glue is thoroughly dry, the nailing strip is broken away and the nails removed.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
The ends of the fibers in a fabric. The first coat of dope on cotton or linen fabric raises the nap, and the fiber ends stick up. These ends must be carefully removed by sanding to get a smooth finish.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
A volatile and flammable hydrocarbon liquid used chiefly as a solvent or as a cleaning fluid.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
A volatile, flammable liquid distilled from petroleum. It is used as a cleaning agent and solvent, and is present in some blended turbine-engine fuels.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
See National Airspace System.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
A Federal agency operating under the FAA, responsible for publishing charts such as the terminal procedures and en route charts.
The common network of United States airspace—air navigation facilities, equipment and services, airports or landing areas; aeronautical charts, information and services; rules, regulations and procedures, technical information; and manpower and material.
National defense airspace means airspace established by a regulation prescribed, or an order issued under, 49 U.S.C. 40103(b)(3).
A set of rules and procedures designed to increase the flexibility of user flight planning within published guidelines.
Areas consisting of airspace of defined vertical and lateral dimensions established at locations where there is a requirement for increased security and safety of ground facilities. Pilots are requested to voluntarily avoid flying through the depicted NSA. When it is necessary to provide a greater level of security and safety, flight in NSAs may be temporarily prohibited. Regulatory prohibitions are disseminated via NOTAMs.
A United States Government independent organization responsible for investigations of accidents involving aviation, highways, waterways, pipelines, and railroads in the United States. NTSB is charged by congress to investigate every civil aviation accident in the United States.
A reciprocating engine that depends upon atmospheric pressure to force the air/fuel mixture into the cylinders. Naturally aspirated engines are neither supercharged nor turbocharged.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
Navigation and communication radio.
Navigational aid.
Navigable airspace means airspace at and above the minimum flight altitudes prescribed by or under this chapter, including airspace needed for safe takeoff and landing.
Any visual or electronic device, airborne or on the surface, that provides point-to-point guidance information, or position data, to aircraft in flight.
NDB (ADF) means nondirectional beacon (automatic direction finder).
Non-directional beacons. Negative pressure relief valve (pressurization component). A valve that opens anytime the outside air pressure is greater than the cabin pressure. It prevents the cabin altitude from ever becoming greater than the aircraft flight altitude.
Guidance: Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
See nondirectional radio beacon.
Guidance: Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-21
Taught in AF-I Quick reference.
A number that is less than zero.
The initial tendency of an aircraft to continue away from the original state of equilibrium after being disturbed.
The thrust produced by a turbojet or turbofan engine in which the acceleration factor is the difference between the velocity of the incoming air and the velocity of the exhaust gases leaving the engine.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
The weight of the aircraft minus the weight of chocks or other devices used to hold the aircraft on the scales.
Taught in GEN-C Procedures.
A line through a piece of material that is bent. The material in the outside of the bend is stretched and that on the inside of the bend is shrunk. The material along the neutral plane is neither shrunk nor stretched.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
An oxyacetylene flame produced when the ratio of oxygen and acetylene is chemically correct and there is no excess of oxygen or carbon. A neutral flame has a rounded inner cone and no feather around it.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
Taught in AF-A Quick reference.
The position of the magnet in a magneto when its poles are between the pole shoes and no lines of flux are flowing through the magnetic circuit.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
Taught in AF-C Concepts, PP-H Procedures.
The initial tendency of an aircraft to remain in a new condition after its equilibrium has been disturbed.
The unit of force needed to accelerate a mass of one kilogram one meter per second per second. One newton is equal to 1000,000 dynes, or 2.248 × 10-1 pound.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
Taught in GEN-J Quick reference, GEN-H Concepts, GEN-J Concepts.
The registered trade name for an alloy of nickel and chromium. Nichrome wire is used for making electrical heater elements and precision wire-wound resistors. Nichrome’s resistance is approximately 65 times that of copper.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-18
Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the Air Almanac, converted to local time.
The time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the American Air Almanac.
Guidance: Helicopter Flying Handbook, p. G-4
A method of case hardening steel. Steel is placed in a retort (a sealed, high-temperature furnace), and heated to a specified temperature while surrounded by ammonia gas (NH3). The ammonia breaks down into nitrogen and hydrogen, and the nitrogen unites with some of the alloying elements in the steel to form an extremely hard surface. Nitriding hardens crankshaft bearing surfaces and cylinder walls in reciprocating engines. It takes place at a lower temperature than other forms of case hardening, and does not cause warping.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-19
NM means nautical mile.
Nautical mile.
Guidance: Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-21
A radar approach that may be used in case of a malfunctioning gyro-compass or directional gyro. Instead of providing the pilot with headings to be flown, the controller observes the radar track and issues control instructions “turn right/left” or “stop turn,” as appropriate.
Term used with the appropriate course and altitude to denote that the procedure turn is not required.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
An unwanted electrical signal within a piece of electronic equipment.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
A patented nylon material used to make the honeycomb core for certain types of sandwich materials.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
A graph that usually consists of three sets of data. Knowledge of any two sets of data enables the reader to determine the third set.
A ground-based radio transmitter that transmits radio energy in all directions.
A brake that does not use the momentum of the aircraft to increase the friction.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
A standard instrument approach procedure in which only horizontal guidance is provided.
Nonprecision approach procedure means a standard instrument approach procedure in which no electronic glide slope is provided.
Memory in a computer that is not lost when power to the computer is lost.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
NOPAC means North Pacific area of operation.
NOPT means no procedure turn required.
See no procedure turn.
Guidance: Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-21
A category of aircraft certificat d under 14 CFR part 23 and CAR part 3 that allows the maximum weight and CG range while restricting the maneuvers that are permitted.
An aircraft that is certificated under 14 CFR part 23 that is not certificated under the acrobatic, utility, or commuter category.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-19
A hydrocarbon, C7H 16, with a very low critical pressure and temperature. Normal heptane is used as the low reference in measuring the anti-detonation characteristics of a fuel.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-23
A shock wave that forms ahead of a blunt object moving through the air at the speed of sound. The shock wave is normal (perpendicular) to the air approaching the object. Air passing through a normal shock wave is slowed to a subsonic speed and its static pressure is increased.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-24
A type of pressure wave that forms at right angles to a surface when air moves at the speed of sound.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-19
The process of heating the part to the proper temperature, holding it at that temperature until it is uniformly heated, and then cooling it in still air.
A process of strain-relieving steel that has been welded and left in a strained condition. The steel is heated to a specified temperature, usually red hot, and allowed to cool in still air to room temperature.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-24
An engine that does not compensate for decreases in atmospheric pressure through turbocharging or other means.
A cam in the nose-gear shock strut that causes the piston to center when the strut fully extends. When the aircraft takes off and the strut extends, the wheel is straightened in its fore-and-aft position so it can be retracted into the wheel well.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-24
See Notice to Airmen.
A measure of the loss of strength of a material caused by the presence of a notch, or a V-shaped cut.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-19
A notice filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of any hazards en route or at a specific location. The authority in turn provides means of disseminating relevant NOTAMs to pilots.
See turbine inlet guide vanes.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-19
A bipolar transistor made of a thin base of P-type silicon or geranium sandwiched between a collector and an emitter, both of which are made of N-type material.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-24
See National Route Program.
See National Security Area.
See National Transportation Safety Board.
Energy stored in the nucleus of atoms is released during the process of nuclear fission in a nuclear reactor or atomic explosion.
The position of an ADF loop antenna when the signal being received is canceled in the two sides of the loop and the signal strength is the weakest.
Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-24
The upper part of a fraction (represented by the letter N in N⁄D).
National Weather Service.
The glossary is CC BY-SA 4.0 as an arrangement; the quoted regulation text is a work of the US Government. Handbook definitions are quoted from the FAA's handbooks, each linked to the FAA's own copy.