Definition
A graphical diagram that plots an airplane's altitude on one axis and airspeed on the other, used to visualize the aircraft's current energy state and the trade-offs between potential energy (altitude) and kinetic energy (airspeed) available during flight.
Plain English
A picture that shows how high you are versus how fast you are going, so you can see at a glance how much energy the airplane has and how that energy can shift between height and speed.
Context Anchor
Seen in energy-management discussions in the Airplane Flying Handbook, especially when visualizing how an airplane changes between different combinations of altitude and airspeed.
Derivation
Altitude comes from the Latin altus, meaning “high.” Airspeed means the airplane’s speed through the surrounding air. Map originally referred to a drawn layout; here it means a visual layout of height and speed, not a geographic chart.
Why Pilots Care
It helps pilots make safe decisions about trading altitude for speed or speed for altitude without losing control or entering a stall.
Grounding Statement
Picture a chart with altitude going up the side and airspeed across the bottom; every moment in flight is a single dot somewhere on that chart, and the airplane is always moving that dot.
Intuition Check
Do not read “map” here as a navigation chart. An altitude-airspeed map is a graph of height and speed, not a map of places on the ground.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor used an altitude-airspeed map to show how climbing at a steady power setting moved the airplane up and to the left as speed traded for altitude.
Example Sentence 2
By studying the altitude-airspeed map, the pilot understood why descending first would allow a safe climb later without running out of energy.