Aviation Glossary

The jargon of flight, in plain English - every term used across PlanesDB spec sheets and articles. Spot a dotted underline on an aircraft page? Hover it and the definition comes to you.

33 terms and counting · missing one? Suggest it

A

Aerial Refuelling: Transferring fuel from a tanker aircraft to another aircraft in flight, extending its range or time on station. Done via a flying boom (USAF style) or probe-and-drogue hose (US Navy/RAF style).
Afterburner (Reheat): Dumping extra fuel into a jet engine's exhaust to produce a large burst of additional thrust - at the cost of enormous fuel consumption. 'Reheat' is the British term.
Airframe: The aircraft's physical structure - fuselage, wings, tail and landing gear - excluding engines and systems. 'One airframe' is also shorthand for one physical aircraft.
Armament: The weapons an aircraft can carry: guns, missiles, bombs and rockets, whether mounted internally, on wing hardpoints, or in bomb bays.
Avionics: An aircraft's electronic systems - radar, navigation, communications, flight computers and displays. From 'aviation electronics'.

C

Canard: A small forewing mounted ahead of the main wing instead of a conventional tailplane, used for extra agility on fighters like the Eurofighter Typhoon and J-20.
Combat Radius: How far an aircraft can fly to a target, do its job, and return home on one load of fuel - always much shorter than its one-way ferry range.
Cruise Speed: The economical speed an aircraft sustains for the bulk of a flight - lower than maximum speed, chosen for the best balance of time and fuel burn.

D

Delta Wing: A triangular wing planform, strong and roomy for fuel, that suits high-speed flight - used by Concorde, the Mirage family and the Avro Vulcan.
Drop Tank: An external, jettisonable fuel tank carried on a hardpoint to extend range. Dropped when empty or when the aircraft needs to fight unencumbered.

F

Ferry Range: The maximum one-way distance an aircraft can fly, typically with extra fuel and no payload - the number used for delivery flights, not missions.
Fly-by-Wire: Flight controls where the pilot's inputs go to computers that command the control surfaces electronically, rather than through mechanical linkages. Enables deliberately unstable, super-agile designs.

G

G-Force: Acceleration measured in multiples of gravity. A 9g turn presses a fighter pilot into the seat with nine times their body weight.

H

Hardpoint: A reinforced station under a wing or fuselage where weapons, sensor pods or drop tanks are attached.

I

ICAO Type Code: The standard 2-4 character type designator (like B52 or A388) used by air traffic control systems and flight trackers such as Flightradar24.

K

Knot: One nautical mile per hour (1.15 mph / 1.85 km/h) - the standard unit of speed in aviation and at sea.

M

Mach Number: Speed as a fraction of the speed of sound: Mach 1 is the sound barrier, Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound. The actual speed varies with altitude and temperature.
MTOW: Maximum Take-Off Weight - the heaviest an aircraft is certified to be at the start of its take-off run, including fuel, crew, payload and the aircraft itself.

P

Payload: Everything an aircraft is carrying that isn't the aircraft or its fuel: passengers, cargo, or weapons. Payload and fuel usually trade off against each other.

R

Radar Cross-Section (RCS): How big an object looks to radar. Stealth aircraft shape and coat their airframes to shrink their RCS from 'barn door' to 'marble'.
Range: How far an aircraft can fly without refuelling. Quoted figures vary with payload, speed and reserves - see also ferry range and combat radius.

S

Service Ceiling: The highest altitude at which an aircraft can still climb at a useful rate (typically 100 ft/min). Above it, the air is too thin to keep climbing meaningfully.
Sortie: One combat flight by one aircraft, from take-off to landing. A squadron 'flying 20 sorties a day' is making 20 individual flights.
Squadron: The basic operational unit of an air force, typically 12-24 aircraft with their crews and support - several squadrons form a wing or group.
Stealth (Low Observability): Design techniques - faceting, blended shapes, radar-absorbent materials, hidden engines - that make an aircraft hard to detect by radar, infrared and eye.
STOL: Short Take-Off and Landing - aircraft designed to operate from very short strips, like the DHC-6 Twin Otter working from bush airstrips.
Supercruise: Sustained supersonic flight without using afterburner - so a fighter can stay above Mach 1 without devouring its fuel. A signature F-22 capability.
Swept Wing: Wings angled backwards from the fuselage to delay the drag rise near the speed of sound - the standard planform for fast jets and airliners alike.

T

Turbofan: A jet engine where a large fan pushes most of its air around the hot core rather than through it - quieter and far more efficient. Powers virtually every modern airliner.
Turbojet: The original jet engine: all air goes through the combustion core. Simple and fast but thirsty and loud - Concorde's Olympus 593s were the last great turbojets.
Turboprop: A jet-turbine core driving a propeller through a gearbox - the most efficient choice for shorter, slower routes, powering aircraft like the C-130 and ATR 72.

V

Variant: A distinct version of an aircraft type - like the B-52H or F-15EX - with its own equipment, engines or role, identified by a suffix letter or name.
VTOL: Vertical Take-Off and Landing - aircraft that can lift off straight up like the Harrier or F-35B, trading fuel and payload for runway independence.