cruise-climb
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.92 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To slowly but continuously climb during cruise flight as the aircraft's weight decreases due to fuel burnoff (done because flight at higher altitudes is more efficient but requires a lighter aircraft).
Intransitive verb
noun
An instance of cruise-climbing.
Example Sentences
- "For a transatlantic crossing, the Concorde would be assigned a ~15,000-foot block of altitude; it started out at flight level 450 and gradually cruise-climbed up to between FL570 and FL600 over the mid-Atlantic before beginning to descend."
- "A cruise-climb is more efficient than the standard step climb, but is rarely used since it's much harder for ATC to manage."