control column

British

noun

Also called: control stick. joy stick. a lever or pillar, usually fitted with a handwheel, used to control the movements of an aircraft

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The wreckage of his Hurricane was recovered in 2019 with the control column and the gun-button still set to "fire".

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2025

That’s done by turning the pilot control column like a steering wheel, which moves flaps on the wings called ailerons to turn.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 7, 2024

The wreckage of his Hurricane was recovered in 2019 with the control column and the gun-button frozen in time, still set to "fire".

From BBC • Nov. 9, 2023

Airbus’s appearance in the market with its strange control system, in which each side’s control column operated independently, was widely derided as “crazy.”

From New York Times • Jan. 7, 2022

“Elmtree, for repair. Faulty tailplane handwheel. It’s flyable, but you have to hold the control column right forward.”

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023