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Welcome to the Dauntless 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
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Ballast
| Ballast | | | Any substance, usually sand or water, carried in a balloon or airship and intended to be thrown out, if necessary, for the purpose of reducing load carried and thus altering aerostatic relations. | | source: Airship Aerodynamics Technical Manual (1941) |
| | | Removable or permanently installed weight in an aircraft used to bring the center of gravity into the allowable range. | | source: FAA Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3A) |
| | | A weight installed or carried in an aircraft to move the center of gravity to a location within its allowable limits. | | source: FAA Aviation Maintenance Technician General Handbook (FAA-H-8083-30) |
| | | Gas ballooning term; used to control buoyancy, and therefore altitude, during flight. Ballast, usually in the form of sand or water, is carried aloft by the gas balloon at launch. As the balloon pilot needs to adjust altitude, a small amount of ballast is jettisoned overboard, thereby reducing the gross weight of the balloon at that point in time. The balloon will then rise to a new pressure altitude, where it will remain until there is another dynamic change in the lift equation. | | source: FAA Balloon Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-11) |
| | | Term used to describe any system that adds weight to the glider. Performance ballast employed in some gliders increases wing loading using releasable water in the wings (via integral tanks or water bags). This allows faster average cross-country speeds. Trim ballast is used to adjust the flying CG, often necessary for light-weight pilots. Some gliders also have a small water ballast tank in the tail for optimizing flying CG. | | source: FAA Glider Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-13A) |
| | | A weight installed or carried in an aircraft to move the center of gravity to a location within its allowable limits. | | source: FAA Weight and Balance Handbook (FAA-H-8083-1A) |
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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.
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