Aviation Dictionary
On this page you will find a searchable and comprehensive alphabetical list of aviation terms. You can help us make it the most comprehensive list in the world. If we have missed anything, click on the ‘send us your word’ button to send us your word, acronym or definition and we will consider adding it to our dictionary.
Aviation Dictionary: E
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| EAS | Equivalent air speed |
| ECT | Evening Civil Twilight. This begins when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon and ends at sunrise |
| EET | Estimated elapsed time |
| EFATO | Engine failure after take-off |
| EFIS | Electronic flight instrument system |
| EGT | Exhaust gas temperature |
| EICAS | Engine indication and crew alerting system |
| Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) | An Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) is an electronic device that hosts applications which allow flight crews to perform functions that were traditionally done using paper products and tools. Two Australian examples are AvPlan and Oz Runways. A US example is Jeppesen Aviator. |
| Elevation | The height of any point on the ground above mean sea level (AMSL). As an example, an aerodrom could be 50 feet AMSL, which means it is 50 feet above the level of the sea. |
| Elevator | The horizontal control surface located on the tail plane and controls the pitch of the aircraft around the lateral axis. |
| ELR | Environmental lapse rate |
| ELT | Emergency Locator Transmitter. A device, which can either be portable or fixed in the aircraft that transmits a signal in the event of an emergency. Depending on the ELT, it may have to be manually turned on, or in most cases will be automatically turned on after some high impact. There is the possibility that a hard landing could activate an ELT. There are specific time periods to test an ELT on 121.5 MHz |
| Emergency | An inflight emergency would mean that the aircraft and/or occupants are in severe danger and a mayday call would be submitted |
| Engine Failure | Is when the engine stops producing power, either due to a loss of fuel or other fluids, or due to mechanical failure. Partial engine failures also occur, and some power may still be available. |
| EOBT | Estimated off-block time. The estimated time that the aircraft moves off the gate to proceed for a departure |
| EPR | Engine pressure ratio |
| EPT | Effective performance time |
| Equator | An imaginary circle that divides the Northern and Southern hemisphere. It is directly in the middle between the North and South pole |
| Equilibrium | This refers to the forces acting upon the aircraft in flight, which would all be in balance. In other words, lift = weight and thrust = drag |
| ERC | En route chart |
| ERSA | En route supplement Australia |
| ETA | Estimated time of arrival |
| ETD | Estimated time of departure |
| ETI | Estimated time interval |
| ETOPS | Extended range twin operations |
| ETP | Equi-time point |
| Exosphere | The outermost layer of the earth’s atmosphere |
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