The UK Utterly Butterly display team perform an aerobatic maneuvre with their Boeing Stearmans, at an air display in England.

Aerobatic maneuvres are maneuvers involving aircraft in unusual attitudes, in air shows, dog fights or competition aerobatics. Aerobatics can be performed by a single aircraft or in formation with several others. Nearly all aircraft are capable of performing aerobatics maneuvers of some kind, although it may not be legal to do so in certain aircraft. A maneuver (spelled manoeuvre in Commonwealth English) is a tactical or strategical move or action. ... A Japan Airlines Boeing 747-400. ... The Utterly Butterly wing_walking display team flying Boeing Stearman PT_17 biplanes An airshow is an event at which aviators display their flying skills, normally to the public, but occasionally to invited guests, or employees and their families only. ... Dog fight is a common term used to describe close-range aerial combat between military aircraft. ... There are five levels in aerobatic competition, Primary or Beginner Sportsman Intermediate Advanced Unlimited There may also be a Classic class for aeroplanes without inverted fuel and oil systems. ... In the early days of flying, pilots realised that their aircraft could be used as part of a flying circus to entertain people or impress others by performing aerobatics. ... This article is about the military unit. ...

Aerobatics consist of four basic maneuvers: Loops, Rolls, Spins, and Hammerheads. Most aerobatic figures are composites of these basic maneuvers.

Some examples of aerobatic maneuvers are:

• Chandelle; consists of a maximum climb, maximum bank combination to obtain the greatest altitude gain for a given airspeed and at the same time makeing a 180 degree course reversal.
• Cuban Eight; 5/8's of a loop to the 45 degree line, 1/2 roll, 5/8's of a loop to the 45 degree line, 1/2 roll, 3/8's of a loop to level flight. (Half of the Cuban Eight is called a "half Cuban Eight", and the figure can be flown backwards, known as a "Reverse Cuban Eight")
  • Reverse Half-Cuban; From level flight pull or push to the 45 degree line, 1/2 roll, then 5/8's of a loop.
• Dive; extreme nose down attitude(not necessarily vertical), resulting increase in airspeed, and descent rate.
• Hammerhead or Stall Turn; 1/4 loop (pull or push) to vertical, as momentum/airspeed decreases, rudder is applied and the aircraft rotates around its yaw axis, the nose falls through the horizon and points towards the ground, a momentary pause is made to draw the vertical down line, and 1/4 loop to level flight. This figure is sometimes called a stall turn which is a misnomer because the aircraft never actually stalls. The manoeuvre is performed when the aeroplane deccelerates through 20 - 30kts (more or less, depending on the aeroplane flown) of airspeed. The cartwheel portion of the hammerhead is performed with full rudder and full opposite aileron. Gyroscopic forces from the propeller during the rapid rate of yaw will produce a pitching and rolling moment and a degree of forward stick will be required to keep the aeroplane from coming off-line over the top. The yaw is stopped with opposite rudder while the ailerons and elevator remain in position, then once the yaw is stopped and the aeroplane is pointed down vertically, all controls are returned to neutral together. Although they can be flown left or right in any aeroplane with the proper technique, a hammerhead is best flown to the left with a clockwise rotating prop, and to the right with an anticlockwise rotating prop (as in a Yakovlev type), due to propeller torque/gyroscopic effects.
• Immelmann, Immelmann Turn, or Roll-off-the-top; 1/2 looping up followed by half a roll. There should be no pause between the end of the looping section and the start of the roll to upright.
• Loop
  • inside loop; a vertical circle from straight and level (pulling the nose up)
  • outside loop; id. (nose down - draws extreme negative gee)
    • English Bunt; half an outside loop starting from upright, straight and level flight. (The pilot pushes the stick forward and draws a half circle in the sky from the top down.)
• Lazy eight; 1/4 looping up, wingover (left or right), 1/2 looping down+up, wingover (right or left), 1/4 looping down
• Lomcovak; family of autorotational, tumbling figures. In all varierties, the aircraft appears to tumble out of control. For example, one style involves the aircraft tumbling(simultaneously) nose over tail and wingtip over wingtip in a negative-g, gyroscopic condition. Introduced by Czechs such as Ladislav Bezak, and others.
• Pugachev's Cobra; the nose of the aircraft is pulled up suddenly. The aircraft pitches up to 90° angle of attack, and almost stalls in mid air. The nose then falls back to the horizontal, and the aircraft accelerates away in the original direction[1]
• Roll; 360° revolution about the longitudinal axis
• Snap Roll; Sometimes called a flick roll or simply flick. A family of rapid autorotational or "horizontal spins," not unlike spins. Rotation is induced by a rapid pitch input followed by rapid yaw input, thus stalling one wing, but not the other. This inbalance in lift causes the high speed roll by the unstalled wing.
• Spin; a family of auto-rotational maneuvers, consisting of upright or inverted and normal or "flat". Two components must exist to spin an aircraft: 1. critical angle of attack (COA) and 2. yaw.
• Split-S; Essentially an Immelmann in reverse. Half roll (from erect to inverted) followed by positive pitch to give a half loop. Converts altitude to airspeed, and reverses direction.
• Standing eight; inside loop, 1/2 roll (inverts the aircraft), inside loop (towards the ground) 1/2 roll on top of the loop
• Tailslide; 1/4 looping up, straight vertical (full power) until the aircraft loses momentum. The aircraft falls backwards, the nose drops through the horizon to the vertical, 1/4 loop (push or pull) to recover.
• Wingover; left or right 180° tight turn (yaw) at the top of a 1/4 looping (up)
• Zoom; extreme nose up attitude (not necessarily vertical), resulting in airspeed loss (not in a jet), and increased rate of climb.

Max Immelmann Max Immelmann (September 21, 1890 - June 18, 1916) was a German World War I Flying ace. ... The word turn can mean: In geometry, a turn is a unit of angular measure equal to 360°. So, for coils the number of turns idicates the number of times that a wire makes a loop around the axis of the coil. ... The word straight may refer to: the quality or state of extending in one direction without turns, bends or curves; or being without influence or interruption. ... Horizontal is an orientation relating to, or in parallel with the horizon, and thus perpendicular to the vertical. ... g (also gee, g-force or g-load) is a non-SI unit of acceleration defined as exactly 9. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... The Pugachev Cobra is a fighter aircraft maneuver. ... Flight dynamics is the study of orientation of air and space vehicles and how to control the critical flight parameters, typically named pitch, roll and yaw. ... In this diagram, the black arrow represents the direction of the wind. ... Simple Definition: An aircraft in flight is usually not pointed directly into the oncoming airflow. ... Look up roll in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In flying, a spin is a special case of a stall, with the aircraft descending rapidly and rotating about a vertical axis. ... Yaw or Yam is the name for the Levantine god of chaos and the power of the untamed sea as found in texts from the ancient city of Ugarit. ...

See also

• Basic Fighter Maneuvers
• Flight dynamics

Basic Fighter Maneuvers are performed by fighter aircraft during Air combat manoeuvering. ... Flight dynamics is the study of orientation of air and space vehicles and how to control the critical flight parameters, typically named pitch, roll and yaw. ...

External link

More aerobatic maneuvers