Technology / Aviation Glossary

Fuel Pressure Gage: a gage that indicates the pressure at which fuel is delivered to the carburetor.

Fuselage: An aircraft's main body structure housing the flight crew, passengers, and cargo and to which the wings, tail and, in most single-engined airplanes, engine are attached. French: fuselé, tapering.

Gap: The distance between two adjacent wings of a biplane or multiplane.

Gear Indicators: a device in the cockpit of an airplane with a retractable landing gear to inform the pilot of the condition of the wheels. It indicates whether they are down and locked, in transit, or up and locked.

General Aviation: The 92 percent of U.S. aircraft and more than 65 percent of U.S. flight hours flown by other than major and regional airlines or the military. Often misunderstood as only small, propeller-dr . . . View Full Definition

Geographic North: The northern axis around which the Earth revolves: aka 'Map North' and TRUE NORTH. Also see MAGNETIC NORTH.

Glass Cockpit: Said of an aircraft's control cabin which has all-electronic, digital and computer-based, instrumentation.

Glide Slope: (1) The angle between horizontal and the glide path of an aircraft. (2) A tightly-focused radio beam transmitted from the approach end of a runway indicating the minimum approach angle that . . . View Full Definition

Glider: An unpowered aircraft capable of maintaining altitude only briefly after release from tow, then gliding to earth. Compare SAILPLANE.

Green Light: Approval for landing. A carryover expression from days when aircraft for the most part had no radios, and communication from a control tower was by means of a light-gun that beamed various g . . . View Full Definition

Gross Weight: The total weight of an aircraft when fully loaded, sometimes referred to as takeoff weight. The aircraft manufacturer, through testing and certification, determines gross weight for the aircraft.

Ground Control: Tower control, by radioed instructions from air traffic control, of aircraft ground movements at an airport.

Ground Effect: Increased lift generated by the interaction between a lift system and the ground when an aircraft is within a wingspan distance above the ground. It affects a low-winged aircraft more than a . . . View Full Definition

Ground Speed: The actual speed that an aircraft travels over the ground (its “shadow speed”): it combines the aircraft’s airspeed and the wind velocity relative to the aircraft’s direction of flight.

Gull-Wing: Descriptive of wing in frontal view bent as the wing of a seagull: a distinctive shallow, inverted 'V' shape—see Stinson SR-10 or inverted gull-wing Vought F4U.

Gyroplane: A rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-driven, except for initial starting, but are made to rotate by action of the air when the rotorcraft is moving and whose means of propulsion, usually . . . View Full Definition

Hangar: An enclosed structure for housing aircraft. Originated with lake-based floating homes of the original German Zeppelins in which they were 'hung' from cables, which explains the erroneous, of . . . View Full Definition

Hard Landing: An improper landing of an aircraft that has transmitted undue stresses into the structure.

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