trim tab

American  

Or trimming tab

noun

Aeronautics.

1. an independently controlled tab set in the trailing edge of a control surface, as an elevator, aileron, or rudder, to hold it in a position suitable for stabilizing the aircraft in a flight attitude.

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trim tab British  

noun

1. a small control surface attached to the trailing edge of a main control surface to enable the pilot to trim an aircraft

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Example Sentences

As Webb makes that journey, it will be pushed around by the solar wind, or the constant stream of particles coming from the sun, so the telescope will unfold a "trim tab" for stability.

From Scientific American • Oct. 23, 2021

She was a trim tab, man, and the moment was real.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 7, 2019

"The little rudder will turn the big rudder, the big rudder will turn the ship. The little rudder is called a trim tab," he said.

From BBC • Jan. 7, 2019

From the photos he took, O'Brien said it looked like a piece of the plane's tail called a "trim tab" had fallen off.

From Chicago Tribune • Sep. 17, 2011

When they arrived, only a matter of hours after the incident, they went over the airplane, from the prop spinner to the rudder trim tab, with a Geiger counter.

From The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by Ruppelt, Edward J.