Aviation Glossary

At Dauntless, our editorial staff maintains the web's largest unified glossary of aviation terms. This glossary is built from a combination of official, quasi-official, and proprietary sources (including original material that we develop oursselves). Uniquely, we often provide multiple definitions of a given term so that you can find that which best applies to you. In order to maximize your learning efficiency, this glossary (and similar ones for our international users) is incresingly fully integrated into our aviation learning apps, including our FAA written test prep and FAA practical test prep software and apps. If you like this glossary, you'll love them with their polished learning environments and world's best and clearest content (please do give them a try.).

Airspeed

The speed of an aircraft relative to its surrounding air mass.

source: FAA Flight Navigator's Handbook (FAA-H-8083-18)

(Refer to 14 CFR Part 1.) The speed of an aircraft relative to its surrounding air mass. The unqualified term "airspeed" means one of the following:

Indicated Airspeed- The speed shown on the aircraft airspeed indicator. This is the speed used in pilot/controller communications under the general term "airspeed. (Refer to 14 CFR Part 1.)
True Airspeed- The airspeed of an aircraft relative to undisturbed air. Used primarily in flight planning and en route portion of flight. When used in pilot/controller communications, it is referred to as "true airspeed and not shortened to "airspeed."

source: FAA Pilot/Controller Glossary

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Disclaimer: While this glossary in most cases is likely to be highly accurate and useful, sometimes, for any number of editorial, transcription, technical, and other reasons, it might not be. Additionally, as somtimes you may have found yourself brought to this page through an automated term matching system, you may find definitions here that do not match the cotext or application in which you saw the original term. Please use your good judgement when using this resource.