wifferdill

English

Alternative forms

• whifferdale, whifferdill

Noun

wifferdill (plural wifferdills)

1. (aviation) An 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.
   • 2003, Dik Alan Daso, Doolittle: Aerospace Visionary, →ISBN, page 20:

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

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

     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.