aileron
noun
ai·le·ron
| \ ˈā-lə-ˌrän
\
\
Definition of aileron
: a movable airfoil at the trailing edge of an airplane wing that is used for imparting a rolling motion especially in banking for turns — see airplane illustration
Examples of aileron in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The trip back from Hawaii achieved better fuel savings because of changes to the software that enabled the airplane to use the rudder to keep its position, as opposed to using the airplane's ailerons. — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "Vortex Surfing: Formation Flying Could Save the Air Force Millions on Fuel," 17 July 2013 Felker rolls the agile aircraft back to our starting position and then performs a series of maneuvers that the Thunderbirds perform: 4-point roll, 8-point roll, aileron rolls, knife edge, Cuban 8 and so forth. — Kelsey Grey, idahostatesman, "Flying high with the Thunderbirds was not what I expected. It was way better.," 2 June 2018 The rudders and pedals at my feet and the stick in my hand are connected by wires that run through pulleys to the ailerons and elevator and rudder. — Popular Mechanics, "How To Fix Flying," 18 July 2016 Conventional aircraft use a system of elevators, rudders, and ailerons to control their direction in the pitch, (up and down) yaw (left to right), and roll directions. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "New Stealth Drone Has No Moving Surfaces at All," 15 Dec. 2017 NASA traced the problem back to the aileron rudder interconnect and laminar air flow. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Watch This F-14 Tomcat Spin Out of Control," 15 Aug. 2017 Framing all those air inlets are unique aero bits like twin front dive planes, an extra-long splitter, and a proper pitched aileron at the rear, all of which conspire to generate 300 pounds (136kg) of downforce at 150mph (241km/h). — Jim Resnick, Ars Technica, "Camaro goes nuclear: Chevrolet escalates the muscle car war," 18 July 2017 The jet lost its right aileron in the impact, the right wingtip fuel tank was sheared off and the nose cone was banged up, according to the NTSB report and photos filed with it. — David Migoya, The Denver Post, "Pilot who buzzed De Beque Canyon in fighter jet, snapping power lines, gets sued in federal court," 16 Feb. 2017These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'aileron.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for aileron
aileron
noun
English Language Learners Definition of aileron
technical
: a part of an airplane wing that can be moved up or down to cause the airplane to turn
See the full definition for aileron in the English Language Learners Dictionary
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