Definition of "chandelle" []

• A sudden, steep climbing turn of an aircraft, executed to alter flight direction and gain altitude simultaneously. (noun)
• To execute a chandelle. (verb-intransitive)

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.

• "Recovering on a reciprocal heading, the Spad pilot added power, climbing into a chandelle to perhaps 5,000 feet heading outbound."
• "She was either using too much rudder in her chandelle maneuvers or not enough."
• "To camouflage was already in use in the United States long before the country entered the war, and such aviation terms as ace, chandelle, vrille and glissade were seldom heard outside the air-force."