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

Quand vous serez bien vieille, au Soir � la chandelle, Assise aupres du feu, d�vidant et filant, Direz chantant mes vers, en vous esmerveillant, Ronsard me celebroit du temps que j'estois belle.

From Avril Being Essays on the Poetry of the French Renaissance by Belloc, Hilaire

‘Bah! it’s nothing,’ Royston observed, answering the direction of my eyes; ‘but—if the tulwar and the reprimand had both been sharper—confess, Hal, that this time, Le jeu valait bien la chandelle?’

From Sword and Gown A Novel by Lawrence, George A. (George Alfred)