The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary (Cambridge Aerospace Series)

751 Pages·2004·3.61 MB·English

by  Bill Gunston

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The Cambridge
Aerospace Dictionary

The Cambridge
Aerospace Dictionary
obe fra s
Bill Gunston , e
Editor, Jane’s Information Group
CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB28RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521841405
© Bill Gunston 2004
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2004
ISBN-13 978-0-511-33723-9 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-10 0-511-33723-X eBook (EBL)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-84140-5 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-84140-2 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Foreword
Gathering terms for an aerospace dictionary is in this field they tend to predominate. Note:
harder than it looks. I recently studied a list of USA means US Army.
terms used by the US Air Force to describe the I have attempted to include a brief explana-
status of each of its component organizations. tion of aerospace materials, even if they are
They explained ‘These actions are defined in known by a registered tradename. Also
ways that may seem arcane to the non- included are the names of many organizations,
specialist, but each term has a specific but, with a few exceptions, not armed forces,
meaning.’ The terms are: Activate, Active list, airlines or flying clubs, and certainly not the
Assign, Attach, Consolidate, Constitute, names of manufacturers or particular types of
Designate, Disband, Disestablish, Establish, aircraft, though such acronyms as TSPJ,
Establishment, Inactivate, Inactive list, Tornado self-protection jammer, are tempt-
Organize, Provisional organizations, Re- ing. On the other hand, there is a grey area
designate, Re-establish, Relieve from active where a company product appears to merit
duty, and Unit. I read their meanings through inclusion, an example being Zero Reader. I
several times and decided not to include any in have had particular trouble with the names of
these pages. spacecraft and their payloads.
In a previous edition I was criticised by a Entries are in strict alphabetical order, thus
reviewer for using words ‘which have no rele- MW50 appears in the place for MW-fifty. The
vance to aerospace’. He cited as an example exception is where an entry has a single alpha-
‘barrier pattern’, a term which BAe betical character followed by a numeral. In
Manchester had asked me to define! My sole such cases it appears immediately after other
objective is to create a useful product.To this entries featuring that single character. With a
end I have included brief entries on such words subject as complicated as aerospace, where
as ‘generic’, ‘oxygen’ and ‘gasoline’, which are one finds C, c, c1, c¯, c¯¯, (c), C* and a host of
not aerospace terms. Incidentally, while C+numeral entries, it is difficult to decide
‘gasoline’ is clearly now a preferred spelling, I which sequence to adopt. Greek terms are
have had to write quite an essay on ‘kerosene/ listed in Appendix 1, but some – such as Alpha
kerosine’. and Beta – merit a place in the body of the
I once had to defend myself against an air dictionary.
marshal who was offended by such rubbish (as On a lighter note, I read an article by Col.
he saw it) as ‘hardware’ and ‘software’. Today Art Bergman, USAF, explaining how to
the explosion of home computing has opened manage the temperamental F100 engine. I had
up millions to such previously unfamiliar no difficulty with his EECs, UFCs and Plaps,
language. Indeed, in recent years the number but was defeated by ‘The F100 needs a lot
of software terms has begun to get out of more TLC than the J79...’ I asked several
hand. The JSF programme alone involves certified F-15 drivers, and they were all mysti-
more than 40software acronyms, and I have fied. I called the 527th TFTS, then the
omitted most of them. European Aggressor outfit. A charming
Partly for this reason, this dictionary is female voice instantly said “Ever think of
centred (centered) at least in mid-Atlantic, if tender loving care?” On reflection, I put this
not further west, so we have ‘Petrol Gasoline’, meaning in the dictionary. The criterion is
the brief definition appearing under the latter. whether or not an aerospace person might be
Cross-references are italicised. I have used US confused without it.
spellings wherever they are appropriate, and One obvious problem area is at what point
v
Foreword
one should give up trying to include foreign fine were it not for the fact that IEMATS
terms. Some may think I have been over- stands for Improved Emergency MEssage
generous to our Gallic friends, while other Automated Transmission System. Roger
countries may think themselves harshly Bacon, the sage of Flight International, has
treated by being ignored. It is impossible to drawn attention to Boeing’s ‘no-tail advanced
say ‘Leave out all foreign terms and theater transport, tilt-wing super-short
acronyms’, because many have become part of takeoff and landing’, which creates the handy
the English language. Nobody would expect name NTATTTW/SSTOL. Clearly, we need
‘aileron’ to be omitted, and before long acronyms within acronyms.
‘Fenestron’ will be just as universally It is often difficult to decide when the name
accepted, probably as fenestron. of a specific item has become a more general
At a rough count the number of new entries term which has to be included. In the 1970s the
this time is in excess of 15,000. Almost all the AAH (Advanced Attack Helicopter) meant
additions are acronyms. There is little point the AH-64 Apache. This is a particular type of
inagain saying that acronyms are an infec- helicopter, so it had no place in these pages.
tious disease, especially in the world of However, over the years AAH has become a
aerospace. Whilst admitting that the incentive term applied to several of the AH-64’s later
to abbreviate is often strong, it is self-defeating competitors, so exclusion is no longer justi-
if the reader has a choice of more than 20 fied. In the same way Awacs is now a class of
interpretations and does not know which one aircraft, while, even though there is only one
to pick. type of AABNCP, that designation is so
Some acronyms, such as Cardsharp, appear important it would be unhelpful to omit it.
contrived. Another is Tiger, Terrifically Both the AAH and AABNCP begin with
Insensitive to Ground-Effect Radar; I had to ‘Advanced’. This is a mere pointless buzz-
force myself to include it. In general, I have word. Presumably it is intended to imply that
omitted acronyms which include the name of something is the very latest, ‘state of the art’
a company, an example being Caps, Collins and better than the competition, but – in aero-
adaptive processor system. I have attempted space at least – I have seldom heard of
to indicate whether the spoken acronym or anybody designing something that was
spelt-out version predominates. Thus, we have not ‘advanced’. Can these items still be
Papi before PAPI. The oustanding exception ‘advanced’ after 40years? To me, another bête
is NATO. This is always spoken as a word, but noireis ‘integrated’. Already we have a zillion
the hierarchy in Brussels still insist that it is not AIAs (advanced integrated acronyms). This is
written Nato. an advanced integrated dictionary.
Some acronyms bear little resemblance to There is an obvious need for a body with the
the actual initial letters of the original words, clout to decree what things shall be called,
while a few are quite a mouthful. We have because the present situation is ludicrous. Did
been in particular trouble with the Joint Strike you know that the acronym ATAC can mean
Fighter. This soon spawned JSF-E&MD ‘Advanced Target Acquisition and Classi-
andJSFPO-AEP, whilst Boeing were awarded fication’? Fine, but ATDC stands for ‘Assisted
a $28,690,212 contract to perform the Target Detection and Classification’ and also
JSFPICPTD. This means the Joint Strike for ‘Automatic Target Detection and
Fighter Program Integrated Core Processing Classification’ and also for ‘Automated
Technical Demonstration, and is something I Target Detection and Classification’. Clearly
have omitted. Another non-starter has to be that is not enough, because ATRC stands for
Direct, which the US Air Force tell me stands ‘Aided Target Recognition and Classification’
for Defense IEMATS REplacement Com- and ‘Automatic Target Recognition and
mand and Control Terminal, which would be Classification’. I did not myself invent these.
vi
Foreword
And I have just noticed that the USAF, the Arinc, MIL-1553A/B or PANIL interface.’
world’s leading offender, has become dis- Many readers were doubtless happy with this,
satisfied with the mere ERT (extended-range and one was impelled to respond with ‘May I
tank). It has changed it to ERFCS, extended- add something to your characterisation of
range fuel-containment system. Feeble! The AQP as ‘an upgrade of CRM’ ... The human
name could be made farmore complicated! factors elements had to be injected into non-
In the same way, it should be simple to have jeopardy Loft and LOE ... With converging
an agreed abbreviation for an airspace control developments in CPL NVQ and recurrent
zone, but we are now confronted by CTLZ, CRM, the AQP may be the shape of things to
CTR, CTRZ, and CTZ. In the first edition of come in the UK.’
this work I included FMEA, for which two A speaker at a recent conference ‘has sat
elucidations were (and are) current: failure onEUROCONTROL, ICAO, EUROCAE,
modes and effects analysis and failure-mode RTAC and AEEC. In his current position as
effects analysis. I now have to add FMECA, Programme Manager CNS/ATM he is
failure-mode effects and criticality analysis, involved in the CLAIRE and ISATIS using
and FMETA, failure-mode effects and task ACARS, a development study of VDL Mode
analysis. It is inconceivable that the authors of 2 in France. He is evaluation manager of
the two new letter-jumbles were unaware of EOLIA and ASD manager in ProATN.’ And
FMEA, and I cannot comprehend the need for an advertisement tells me ‘Group IV faxes and
the two new identities. If we go on like this I PCMCIA cards are only supplied with an
fear for the sanity of whoever takes over this ISDN S-Bus interface. The ISDN integration
work when I collapse through exhaustion. provided by the LES means that a SODA is
Many of the acronyms in these pages only required at the mobile end’. I think I need
already have more than 20meanings, and are a whisky with my SODA.
gathering fresh ones all the time. This trend is
leading to texts which, even to most aerospace Preface to the Cambridge edition
people, must appear mere gobbledegook. This updated and enlarged new edition is the
There is no more clearly written periodical first to be published by Cambridge University
than Aerospace, published by the august Press. I would like to thank Phoenix Type-
Royal Aeronautical Society, and it strives to setting for doing a masterful job with
remain one of the few bastions of good mathematics and Greek symbols, and every-
English. They published an article which told one atCambridge for their diligence and
us ‘Currently, BASE is developing a Terprom infectious enthusiasm – all too rare these
SEM-E standard card for use in the H764G, a daysin book publishing.
high-accuracy INS with embedded GPS. It
has two slots, the second being used by an Bill Gunston, Haslemere, 2004
vii