Vocabulary: Aviation Terms from the Headlines

Word on the Wing: six words from the headlines

Welcome to Word on the Wing, our regular look at the aviation English behind the news. Below are six terms that turned up in recent aviation stories — from airline finances to a jet that broke the sound barrier — each with a clear definition, an example, and a note on how to use it.

The six terms

load factor (noun) — the percentage of available seats that are filled by paying passengers. When fuel prices rose sharply, Air India cut capacity to protect its load factor on the routes that were still busy. A high load factor usually means a route is profitable. Don’t confuse it with payload, which is the weight an aircraft carries.

ultra-long-haul (adjective) — describing a flight that covers an extremely long distance without stopping. Qantas has designed its A350 cabin for ultra-long-haul routes such as Sydney to London, flown non-stop. “Haul” means a journey of a stated length, so you will also meet short-haul and long-haul. Hyphenate it before a noun: an ultra-long-haul flight.

airworthiness directive (noun, often shortened to AD) — a legally binding order from a safety regulator requiring operators to fix a specific problem. The FAA issued an airworthiness directive requiring airlines to replace a faulty oxygen clamp on the Airbus A350. An AD is mandatory, not advice. The verb is to issue an AD.

slot (noun) — a permitted time for an aircraft to take off or land at a busy airport. When Southwest left Chicago O’Hare, rival carriers competed for its valuable take-off and landing slots. Heavily used airports are described as slot-constrained. An airline can hold, give up or swap slots.

pylon (noun) — the structure that attaches an engine to the wing (or, on some aircraft, the fuselage). Investigators warned that a crack in the engine pylon could allow the engine to separate from the wing. You may also see it called an engine strut. This is technical, maintenance-register vocabulary.

supersonic (adjective) — faster than the speed of sound. The test aircraft went supersonic, reaching Mach 1.21 before slowing for landing. The opposite is subsonic, and the point near Mach 1 is called the sound barrier. Concorde was the most famous supersonic airliner.

Practice

Type the missing term into each box and press Check (change the form if you need to):

CEFR Level B2 / ICAO Level 5

Several of these words came straight from this fortnight’s stories — read how rising fuel costs pushed one airline to cut a fifth of its flights.