Definition
To tilt an aircraft laterally about its longitudinal axis, lowering one wing and raising the other, typically as part of initiating or maintaining a turn.
Plain English
To roll the aircraft sideways so one wing drops and the other rises, usually to start or hold a turn.
Context Anchor
Seen in discussions of turns, flight control movement, aircraft attitude, and flight checks after maintenance.
Derivation
From the older sense of 'bank' meaning a sloped edge or incline, like the banked side of a road or racetrack. When a pilot banks the aircraft, they put it on that same kind of slope through the air.
Why Pilots Care
Banking produces the horizontal component of lift needed to turn the aircraft while preserving altitude and airspeed control; excessive or uncoordinated bank can lead to stalls or loss of control.
Intuition Check
Bank here does not mean a money place or a river edge. As a verb in aviation, it means to tilt the aircraft sideways around its nose-to-tail line.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor told the student to bank gently to the left and hold thirty degrees of bank through the turn.
Example Sentence 2
During the steep turn maneuver the instructor held a constant 45-degree bank while maintaining altitude.