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Aviation glossary

Elevator

Also: elevators, pitch control surface

The aircraft

Movable surface on the trailing edge of the horizontal stabiliser that raises or lowers the nose, controlling the aircraft's pitch attitude.

What it is

When the pilot pulls back on the control column or sidestick, the elevators rise, the tail goes down and the nose comes up; pushing does the opposite. They control the angle of attack and therefore the rotation on take-off, the climb, the descent and the flare, the manoeuvre that cushions the landing just before the wheels touch the runway.

On most jet airliners they share the work with the trimmable horizontal stabiliser: the stabiliser moves slowly to balance the aircraft for its weight, centre of gravity and speed, while the elevators make the quick corrections. On fly-by-wire aircraft the pilot does not move the surfaces directly; the input goes to the flight control computers, which decide how far to deflect them.

Related terms

Horizontal stabiliserHorizontal tail surface that keeps an aircraft stable in pitch and, on most jet airliners, pivots through a few degrees to trim it. EmpennageTail assembly of an aircraft, made up of the horizontal and vertical stabilisers and their control surfaces, providing stability and control. RudderMovable surface hinged to the back of the fin that swings the nose left or right, controlling the aircraft in yaw. Fly-by-wireFlight control system in which the pilot's inputs travel as electrical signals to computers that move the control surfaces. Take-offThe phase in which an aircraft accelerates along the runway to rotation speed, raises its nose and climbs away to a safe height above any obstacles.
Whole glossary

Cite

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Elevator. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/elevator

MLA

“Elevator.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/elevator. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Elevator.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/elevator.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Elevator. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/elevator (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_elevator,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Elevator}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/elevator},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/elevator}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-17},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/elevator |title=Elevator |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}

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