Plain English Meaning
The tight, twisting downward spiral an airplane follows when it is spinning. Think of water swirling down a drain — the airplane is rotating around its own axis while falling along a narrow, screw-shaped path.
Full Definition
The descending, spiraling flightpath traced by an airplane during a spin, in which the aircraft rotates around its vertical axis while simultaneously descending along a tight, helical trajectory toward the ground.
Context Anchor
Seen in spin awareness discussions when describing what the airplane’s flight path looks like during a spin.
Derivation
A corkscrew is the spiral metal tool used to pull corks from bottles. Its tight, helical shape became the standard way to any narrow spiraling path. Pairing it with 'downward' captures the and the that define a spin.