Definition of "aileron" []

• Either of two movable flaps on the wings of an airplane that can be used to control the plane's rolling and banking movements. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "* Besides twice flying the X-1B as part of the reaction-control research, Armstrong sought a possible fix to a problem known as aileron “buzz.”"
• "That caused the -- with the drag and the hole in the aileron, that is what caused the uncontrolled roll."
• "I read him checklists, learning words like "aileron," "magnetos," and "pitot" that no one else in my first-grade class knew."