- Industry: Aviation
- Number of terms: 16387
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc. (ASA) develops and markets aviation supplies, software, and books for pilots, flight instructors, flight engineers, airline professionals, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, aviation technicians and enthusiasts. Established in 1947, ASA also provides ...
A type of spatial disorientation caused by the physical senses sending conflicting signals to the brain. Vertigo is specially hazardous when flying under conditions of poor visibility. The eyes send a signal to the brain telling it the airplane is in one condition, while the deep muscles, “the seat of the pants,” tell the brain the airplane is in another condition. The inner ear tells still another story, and the result is confusion
— vertigo.
Vertigo may cause pilot incapacitation, but may be minimized by confidence in the indication of the flight instruments.
Industry:Aviation
A type of splice used for electrical wires in which the ends of the wires to be joined are twisted together to give them mechanical strength. The joint is then covered with soft solder to decrease its electrical resistance. Soldered splices are not generally recommended for use in aircraft electrical systems.
Industry:Aviation
A type of splice used in a welded steel tubular structure, in which the end of a tube, whose inside diameter is the same as the outside diameter of the tube being spliced, is cut in the shape of a V, or fishmouth, and is slipped over the smaller tube and welded.
A fishmouth splice has more weld area than a butt splice, and it allows the stresses from one tube to transfer gradually into the other tube.
Industry:Aviation
A type of spray gun that propels the material in a solid stream, rather than in the form of tiny droplets.
Industry:Aviation
A type of spring clip used to temporarily connect a wire into an electrical circuit. Some batteries have Fahnstock clips for connecting wires to their terminals.
Industry:Aviation
A type of stall that affects some airplanes as they fly in the transonic speed range. In the transonic range, some air flowing over the aircraft surface is moving faster than the speed of sound, while other air is moving at a speed slower than the speed of sound.
When a shock wave forms on the upper surface of a wing, it gets in the way of the air flowing behind it, and this air breaks away from the wing surface. The shock wave causes the wing to stall. Shock stalls can cause control problems as an airplane is passing from subsonic flight into supersonic flight.
Industry:Aviation
A type of starter for large aircraft reciprocating engines. A series-wound electric motor spins a heavy flywheel to store energy. When the flywheel is spinning at a high speed, the motor is disconnected, and the flywheel is connected to the engine crankshaft through a series of reduction gears and a slip clutch.
Industry:Aviation
A type of starter used on some gas turbine engines in which a stream of high-pressure compressed air is directed onto the blades of the compressor or turbine to rotate the engine for starting.
Industry:Aviation
A type of starter used on some large aircraft reciprocating engines. A cartridge, looking much like a shotgun cartridge, is fired in the breech of the starter. The gas produced by the burning powder pushes down on a piston inside a cylinder. The piston is attached to a helical spline, a spline cut in the shape of a spiral, in such a way that as the piston moves down, the spline twists. The twisting spline turns a gear that meshes with a gear on the engine crankshaft.
When the cartridge is fired and the piston is pushed down, the helical spline turns the gear and cranks the engine fast enough for it to start.
Industry:Aviation
A type of starter used on some large reciprocating engines. Energy is stored in a spinning flywheel by an electric motor or a hand crank. When enough energy has been put into the flywheel, it is coupled to the crankshaft, and turns it fast enough for the engine to start.
Industry:Aviation
