Plain English Meaning

Cockpit instruments that use a spinning wheel inside them to show whether the aircraft's nose is pointing up, down, left, or right compared to level flight.

Full Definition

Gyroscopic instruments that display the aircraft's pitch and bank relative to the natural horizon. The most familiar example is the attitude indicator, which uses a gyro spinning in the horizontal plane to provide a stable reference against which the aircraft's movements can be shown.

Context Anchor

Seen in discussions of attitude indicators and gyroscopic flight instruments, especially in instrument flying when cannot rely on .