Definition
The current physical arrangement of an airplane's movable components — including landing gear (up or down), wing flaps (retracted or extended to a specific setting), cowl flaps, spoilers, and other variable surfaces or systems — that together determine how the airplane is set up for a particular phase of flight.
Plain English
How the airplane is currently set up — gear up or down, flaps in or out, and so on — for whatever it is doing right now, like taking off, cruising, or landing.
Context Anchor
You see this term when discussing how the airplane is set up before takeoff, during approach, during landing, or during any change that affects speed, drag, or handling.
Derivation
From Latin 'configurare', meaning to shape or form together. In aviation, it describes the combined 'shape' the airplane is in at a given moment based on how its movable parts are positioned.
Why Pilots Care
Selecting the wrong configuration changes lift, drag, and stall speed, directly affecting safety margins and aircraft handling.
Intuition Check
Do not read “configuration” as the airplane’s model or design type. Here it means the airplane’s current setup in flight, such as whether the gear is down, flaps are extended, or power has been changed.
Example Sentence 1
Before turning final, the pilot established the landing configuration with gear down and full flaps.
Example Sentence 2
On short final the airplane was placed in the landing configuration with gear down and full flaps.