Glossary

See wide area augmentation system.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

The high-velocity stream of turbulent air behind an operating aircraft engine.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-31

Wingtip vortices that are created when an airplane generates lift. When an airplane generates lift, air spills over the wingtips from the high pressure areas below the wings to the low pressure areas above them. This flow causes rapidly rotating whirlpools of air called wingtip vortices or wake turbulence.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

See rotating combustion (RC) engine.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-31

The boundary area formed when a warm air mass contacts and flows over a colder air mass. Warm fronts cause low ceilings and rain.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

See weather and radar processing.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

An alignment indicator included in a structural repair manual to show the orientation of the piles of a composite material. The ply direction is shown in relation to a reference direction.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

Threads that run the length of the roll of fabric, parallel to the selvage edge. Warp threads are often stronger than fill threads.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

Threads of a different color from the warp threads that are woven into a material to identify the direction of the warp threads.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

A twist in an airplane wing that increases its angle of incidence near the tip.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

A twist in an airplane wing that decreases its angle of incidence near the tip.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

A controllable butterfly valve in the exhaust pipe of a reciprocating engine equipped with an exhaust-driven turbocharger. When the waste gate is open, exhaust gases leave the engine through the exhaust pipe, and when it is closed, they leave through the turbine.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-31

A horizontal reference plane used to locate vertical positions on an aircraft. Positions are usually given in inches above or below the waterline.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — General, p. G-11

A unit of power equal to one joule per second.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — General, p. G-11

A phantom location created in certain electronic navigation systems by measuring direction and distance from a VORTAC station or by latitude and longitude coordinates from Loran or GPS.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

A designated geographical location used for route definition or progress-reporting purposes and is defined in terms of latitude/longitude coordinates.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

See wind correction angle.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

A device that provides real-time, accurate, predictive, and strategic weather information presented in an integrated manner in the National Airspace System (NAS).

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

Details surface conditions as derived from METAR and other surface observations.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

The part of a spar between the caps.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

See fill threads.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

Locations on an aircraft that the manufacturer designates for the placement of scales when weighing aircraft.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — General, p. G-11

A measure of the pull of gravity acting on the mass of an object.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — General, p. G-11

An engine that carries its lubricating oil supply in a reservoir that is part of the engine itself.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-31

A lubrication system in which the oil supply is carried within the engine itself. Return oil drains into the oil reservoir by gravity.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-31

An engine-driven air pump that uses steel vanes. These pumps are lubricated by engine oil drawn in through holes in the pump base. The oil passes through the pump and is exhausted with the air. Wet-type pumps must have oil separators in their discharge line to trap the oil and return it to the engine crankcase.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

The British Royal Air Force flying officer who in 1929 filed a patent application for a turbojet engine. Whittle’s engine first flew in a Gloster E.28 on May 15, 1941. The first jet flight in America was made on October 2, 1942, in a Bell XP-59A that was powered by two Whittle-type General Electric I-A engines.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-31

The numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — General, p. G-11

A differential global positioning system (DGPS) that improves the accuracy of the system by determining position error from the GPS satellites, then transmitting the error, or corrective factors, to the airborne GPS receiver.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

The angle between the desired track and the heading of the aircraft necessary to keep the aircraft tracking over the desired track.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-34

Indicators that include a wind sock, wind tee, or tetrahedron. Visual reference will determine wind direction and runway in use.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

A sudden, drastic shift in windspeed, direction, or both that may occur in the horizontal or vertical plane.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

A propeller that is rotated by air flowing over the blades rather than powered by the engine.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-31

A twice daily forecast that provides wind and temperature forecasts for specific locations in the contiguous United States.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

The total surface of the wing (in square feet), which includes control surfaces and may include wing area covered by the fuselage (main body of the airplane), and engine nacelles.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

A straight line distance across a wing from leading edge to trailing edge.

Aircraft Weight and Balance Handbook, p. G-5

Vertical vanes that extend chordwise across the upper surface of an airplane wing to prevent spanwise airflow.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

An out-of-trim flight condition in which an airplane flies hands off, with one wing low. Wire bundle.A compact group of electrical wires held together with special wrapping devices or with waxed string. These bundles are secured to the aircraft structure with special clamps.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

The wing root is the part of the wing on a fixed-wing aircraft that is closest to the fuselage. Wing roots usually bear the highest bending forces in flight and during landing, and they often have fairings to reduce interference drag between the wing and the fuselage. The opposite end of a wing from the wing root is the wing tip.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

The maximum distance from wingtip to wingtip.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

A design feature incorporated into some wings to improve aileron control effectiveness at high angles of attack during an approach to a stall.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

Airfoils attached to each side of the fuselage and are the main lifting surfaces that support the airplane in flight.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

The rapidly rotating air that spills over an airplane’s wings during flight. The intensity of the turbulence depends on the airplane’s weight, speed, and configuration. Also referred to as wake turbulence. Vortices from heavy aircraft may be extremely hazardous to small aircraft.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

A diagram that shows the electrical wiring and circuitry, coded for identification, of all the electrical appliances and devices used on aircraft.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — General, p. G-11

See fill threads.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Airframe, p. G-39

The amount of energy transferred by a force.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — General, p. G-11

A standard series of aeronautical charts covering land areas of the world at a size and scale convenient for navigation (1:1,000,000) by moderate speed aircraft. Topographic information includes cities and towns, principal roads, railroads, distinctive landmarks, drainage, and relief. Aeronautical information includes visual and radio aids to navigation, airports, airways, restricted areas, obstructions and other pertinent data.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, p. G-35

A helical gear mounted on a shaft. The worm meshes with a spur gear whose teeth are cut at an angle to its face. A worm gear is an irreversible mechanism. The rotation of the shaft, on which the worm gear locks the spur gear so its shaft cannot be rotated.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-31

The hardened steel pin that attaches a piston to the small end of a connecting rod.

Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook — Powerplant, p. G-31