Word on the Wing
In our Word on the Wing series we lift six real terms from the last month of aviation news and unpack each one in plain English. The last month brought a big airline deal in Portugal, a roomier seat from Saudia, a shark-skin film that saves fuel, a landing gear collapse in Luxembourg and two fatal crashes that investigators are still trying to explain. Here are the words behind the headlines.
Glossary
stake (n.)
A stake is a share in a company that a person, a government or another company owns.
Lufthansa has agreed to buy a 44.9% stake in TAP Air Portugal for about 1.2 billion euros, although European Union regulators must approve the deal first.
Usage note: You buy, take or sell a stake in a company. Less than half is a minority stake; more than half is a majority stake, which gives control. Watch the spelling: a steak sounds the same but is something you eat.
premium economy (n.)
Premium economy is a cabin between economy and business class, with wider seats and more legroom for a lower price than business.
Saudia has shown its first premium economy seat, with a pitch of up to 43 inches, and plans to offer it on new Boeing 787s from 2027.
Usage note: You fly or book premium economy with no article (we flew premium economy), or sit in premium economy. Its partner word is pitch: the distance from one seat to the same point on the seat in front, the airline’s measure of legroom.
drag (n.)
Drag is the force of the air that pushes back against an aircraft as it moves forward, so the engines must burn fuel to overcome it.
Discover Airlines says the shark-skin film on its Airbus A330 reduces drag enough to cut fuel use by about one percent on every flight.
Usage note: You reduce, cut or create drag. It is one of the four forces of flight: lift works against weight, and thrust works against drag. Pilots sometimes add drag on purpose — lowering the landing gear helps an aircraft slow down.
icing (n.)
Icing is the build-up of ice on an aircraft’s wings, tail and other surfaces, which adds weight and reduces the lift the wing can produce.
Accounts of the NTSB briefing say the Learjet crew reported ice and turbulence, but investigators have not said whether icing played any part in the crash.
Usage note: Pilots fly into or out of icing conditions, often by changing altitude. Keep two related words apart: anti-icing stops ice from forming, while de-icing removes ice that is already there — for example, spraying fluid on the wings before take-off.
precaution (n.)
A precaution is an action you take in advance to stop something bad from happening, before anyone has proved there is a problem.
After the left main landing gear of a parked 747-8F collapsed in Luxembourg, Cargolux ordered extra checks on all its 747-8Fs as a precaution.
Usage note: The key phrase is as a precaution: the aircraft returned to the gate as a precaution. The adjective appears in precautionary checks and a precautionary landing. In the news, the word usually signals that nothing is known to be wrong yet.
service bulletin (n., SB)
A service bulletin is a notice from an aircraft or engine manufacturer telling owners about a recommended inspection, repair or change.
After the fatal crash in France, Elixir Aircraft issued an alert service bulletin grounding its own aeroplanes, and EASA then followed with an emergency airworthiness directive.
Usage note: A manufacturer issues a service bulletin, and operators comply with it. On its own an SB is normally a recommendation; an alert SB flags an urgent safety issue. When a regulator makes the action compulsory, it issues an airworthiness directive (AD), a term from our June issue.
Practice
Fill each gap with a term from this issue. The last two (marked Review:) reach back to earlier issues.
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Air France-KLM also made an offer, but in the end Lufthansa won the right to buy a minority ____ in the Portuguese airline.
The share of a company that an investor buys is a ‘stake’ (a minority stake is less than half). Careful with spelling: a ‘steak’ is something you eat.
Stake — a share in a company that someone owns; less than half is a ‘minority stake’.
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Business class was too expensive, but she did not want a cramped seat for twelve hours, so she booked ____ and enjoyed the extra legroom.
The cabin that sits between economy and business class, with more space but a lower price than business, is ‘premium economy’.
Premium economy — the cabin between economy and business, with wider seats and more legroom.
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Lowering the landing gear adds a lot of ____, so the aircraft slows down quickly without any extra power.
The force of the air that pushes back against an aircraft and slows it is ‘drag’. Lift holds the aircraft up; thrust pushes it forward against drag.
Drag — the force of the air pushing back against a moving aircraft.
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Ice was building up on the wings, so the crew asked air traffic control for a higher level to climb out of the ____ conditions.
The build-up of ice on an aircraft is ‘icing’, and air in which it happens is described as ‘icing conditions’.
Icing — the build-up of ice on an aircraft’s surfaces; pilots try to leave ‘icing conditions’.
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Nobody was hurt and no fault had been found, but the airline kept its other two aircraft on the ground as a ____ until engineers had checked them.
An action you take in advance, before anything is proved to be wrong, is a ‘precaution’ — you do it ‘as a precaution’.
Precaution — an action taken in advance to prevent a possible problem; the key phrase is ‘as a precaution’.
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The engine maker issued a ____ recommending an extra inspection of the fan blades; a few weeks later the regulator made the inspection compulsory.
A notice from the manufacturer telling owners about a recommended inspection or change is a ‘service bulletin’ (SB). When a regulator makes the action compulsory, it issues an airworthiness directive.
Service bulletin — a manufacturer’s notice recommending an inspection, repair or change.
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Review: On the wet runway the jet could not stop in time and ran off the end into the grass. Investigators called the event a ____.
When an aircraft runs off the end or the side of the runway, it is a ‘runway excursion’. Don’t confuse it with a runway incursion, which is an aircraft or vehicle wrongly entering a runway.
Runway excursion — an aircraft leaving the runway surface, off the end or the side (off the end is also called an overrun).
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Review: The airport has raised its ____, so every airline now pays more each time one of its aircraft touches down there.
The fees an airport collects from an airline for each landing are its ‘landing charges’. They are paid by the airline, not by passengers as a fare.
Landing charges — the fees an airline pays an airport each time its aircraft lands.
CEFR Level B2 / ICAO Level 5
Want to see one of this month’s words in action? Read how a thin film on the outside of an aircraft cuts drag and saves fuel on every flight.
