defensive spiral

English

A defensive spiral.

Noun

defensive spiral (plural defensive spirals)

1. (aviation, military) A last-resort defensive maneuver in dogfighting used by an aircraft with critically-low kinetic energy, consisting of a rolling scissors performed straight down, using gravity to supply the kinetic energy needed to continue maneuvering, while attempting to either slow down enough to get behind the attacker or else trick the attacker into crashing into the ground.

Hypernyms

• rolling scissors