chandelle

American  

[shan-del, shahn-] / ʃænˈdɛl, ʃɑ̃- /

noun

1. an abrupt climbing turn in which an aircraft almost stalls while using its momentum to gain a higher rate of climb.

---

verb (used without object)

chandelled, chandelling

1. to perform a chandelle.

chandelle British  

/ ʃænˈdɛl, ʃɑ̃dɛl /

noun

1. aeronautics an abrupt climbing turn almost to the point of stalling, in which an aircraft's momentum is used to increase its rate of climb

---

verb

1. (intr) to carry out a chandelle

Etymology

Origin of chandelle

1915–20; < French: literally, candle

Example Sentences

Two weeks after telling Congress the F-22 "certainly" would be used, Air Force chief Schwartz pulled what pilots call a chandelle -- a 180-degree turn.

From Time • Apr. 18, 2011

Just then the Navy plane made a chandelle, driving around back of me.

From Time Magazine Archive

For not only in New York but all over the land school children are speaking a strange new language, fazing their elders with terms like wobble pump, advection, burble, troposphere, chandelle, nacelle.

From Time Magazine Archive

They might have said what the lean and ragged witch observed, when she saw them setting fire to the stake, "Le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle."

From The Man Who Laughs by Hugo, Victor

Strack has much to say of the main-de-gloire and the chandelle magique.

From The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day by Chamberlain, Alexander F.