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Aviation glossary

Wake turbulence

Also: wake vortex, wingtip vortices, wake turbulence category

Operations and flight

Swirling air left behind an aircraft as it generates lift; its strength depends mainly on weight, and it dictates the spacing of the aircraft that follow.

What it is

As a wing produces lift, it sheds two counter-rotating vortices from its tips. They are strongest when the aircraft is heavy and slow, as on take-off and landing, and they sink gradually and drift with the wind, lasting a couple of minutes or more.

To keep aircraft out of the wake of much larger ones, ICAO groups aircraft by maximum take-off weight: light (up to 7 tonnes), medium, heavy (136 tonnes or more) and a category of its own, ‘super’, for the A380. Heavy aircraft add the word ‘heavy’ to their call sign on the radio. Europe and the United States also apply more finely grained schemes known as RECAT.

These categories set the spacing on approach, from 4 to 8 nautical miles depending on the pair of aircraft, and 2 or 3 minutes between departures. A medium aircraft landing behind an A380 must be 7 nautical miles back, compared with the 3-mile radar minimum between two mediums.

On Vuelopedia

The technical data on Vuelopedia model pages include the maximum take-off weight, the figure that determines the wake turbulence category.

Airbus A380

Related terms

MTOWMaximum weight at which an aircraft is certified to begin its take-off, including structure, crew, passengers, cargo and fuel. Air traffic controlThe service that keeps aircraft safely apart and orders traffic on the ground and in the air through clearances and instructions passed by radio. Call signName by which an aircraft is identified in radio communications with air traffic control, such as Speedbird or Lufthansa followed by the flight number. ApproachThe phase of flight in which the aircraft lines up with the runway and descends along a defined path to the point where the crew decides to land or go around. WingSurface that generates the lift needed for flight; on airliners it usually also holds much of the fuel and carries the engines.
Whole glossary

Cite

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Wake turbulence. Retrieved October 19, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wake-turbulence

MLA

“Wake turbulence.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wake-turbulence. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Wake turbulence.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wake-turbulence.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Wake turbulence. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wake-turbulence (Accessed: 19 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_wake_turbulence,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Wake turbulence}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wake-turbulence},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wake-turbulence}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-19},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-19}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/wake-turbulence |title=Wake turbulence |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-19 |language=en}}

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