drift indicator

American  

noun

Aeronautics.

1. an instrument that indicates the amount of drift of an aircraft.

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Etymology

Origin of drift indicator

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

This they were able to make up for by means of the drift indicator, which compensated for the drift.

From Project Gutenberg

He had a tachometer, and an altimeter, an earth inductor compass, a drift indicator, and—” Captain Bill interrupted.

From Project Gutenberg

It had a Sperry gyro-pilot, a new type drift indicator, robot navigational control.

From Time Magazine Archive

The truck makes use of the fact that if the drift indicator is set parallel to a course, as in flight, each deviation from that course on a twisting highway will give an effect of drift.

From Time Magazine Archive

Kept on his course by a homing radio compass, another taking bearings from ships at sea, and a new periscopic drift indicator perfected by Lieutenant Thurlow, Flier Hughes let a gyro-pilot do most of the flying, chatted every half hour or so over a powerful radio transmitter to a base at the New York World's Fair that was using a towering trylon of that future exhibition for an antenna.

From Time Magazine Archive