wifferdill

plural wifferdills · alternative whifferdale · alternative whifferdill

1. aeronauticsAn elaborate, multiaxis aerobatic manoeuvre, especially one in which an aircraft makes a series of very tight turns in order to reverse its direction of travel.

   Doolittle executed a grand wifferdill—rapidly climbing to exchange airspeed for altitude—after completing the course, then a perfect landing.

   2003, Dik Alan Daso, Doolittle: Aerospace Visionary, →ISBN, page 20

   1 more example

   When not breeding, they whirl in rings above the earth, dive for flies with gaping, froglike mouths, and perform whifferdales and rolls, glancing in and out of sight.

   2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 24