How to Use control surface in a Sentence

control surface

noun
Definition of control surfacenext
  • The most important control surfaces on our plane are the back edges of the wings, or elevons.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 13 July 2023
  • On the way down, having lost power on one side, the pilots would adjust their rudders, flaps, and other flight control surfaces to keep the aircraft balanced.
    — Jack Stewart, WIRED, 17 Apr. 2018
  • The flight control system was also tested as control surfaces on the wings and stabilizers were moved through their full range of motion.
    — Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, 20 Sep. 2017
  • This could take the form of capsules fixed with flight control surfaces for precision glides or steerable parachutes for more pinpoint landings.
    — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 29 Oct. 2018
  • Lasers can burn holes in ship hulls, torch flying drones and slice off control surfaces, and explode the propellant or warhead in an incoming missile.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 17 May 2019
  • Detroit is a cold place in December, and since ice and airplane control surfaces don't mix, a deicing stop on the way to the runway is often necessary.
    — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 22 Jan. 2018
  • The other components—its battery, motor, and control surfaces—have to be smuggled across the border from Thailand.
    — WIRED, 29 Sep. 2023
  • Flight data recorders track data ranging from basic speed and altitude to the position of flight-control surfaces and flight-control inputs by the crew.
    — Ben Otto, WSJ, 4 Nov. 2018
  • Having bled off so much energy, the test pilot then masterfully plays his plane like a fiddle, using his engines and control surfaces to put the plane into a slow horizontal spin.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 20 July 2017
  • Kwak: Other structural components such as wing control surfaces (such as an aileron or a rudder) will be made of edible material by 3D food printing or molding.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 8 Mar. 2023
  • Newer airplanes use powerful computers to recognize increasing G load on the airplane and to reduce it by deflecting flight control surfaces.
    — John Cox, USA TODAY, 17 June 2018
  • Control continuity was confirmed from the elevator, rudder, elevator trim, and rudder trim from each respective control surface to the area in the cabin consumed by fire, and then forward to the cockpit controls.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 16 Oct. 2019
  • These mechanical devices are usually in the shape of control surfaces attached to the rear of the wing, horizontal, and vertical stabilizers and are controlled by the pilot—or sometimes an onboard flight computer.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 15 Dec. 2017
  • Airbus declined to comment on whether LOUT contains such a control system, but the quest to develop a craft without these moving control surfaces is definitely accelerating.
    — Eric Tegler, Scientific American, 9 Jan. 2020
  • But traditional control surfaces require external seams that radar can detect with relative ease.
    — Eric Tegler, Scientific American, 9 Jan. 2020
  • Those that use explosives require larger rocket motors, structures, and control surfaces, making them much less maneuverable.
    — Eric Adams, WIRED, 5 May 2018
  • The grid fins, originally developed by the Soviet Union half a century earlier as control surfaces for intercontinental ballistic missiles, could be rotated up to 20 degrees and worked well on the big rocket.
    — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 17 Nov. 2023
  • High-energy lasers, for example, could destroy a missile by burning through critical structures, control surfaces, and/or control systems, causing the missile to structurally fail or become uncontrollable.
    — Henry Obering Iii, Fortune, 5 July 2018
  • New lightweight materials, electric propulsion using small fans, and stability-enhancing computer controls mean that traditional engines, and flight control surfaces like flaps, are no longer a necessity.
    — Jack Stewart, WIRED, 14 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'control surface.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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