Glossary of Aerospace Terms A - Z
A
Abrasion Resistance – Ability of a wire, cable or material to resist surface wear.
Accelerated Aging – A test in which voltage, temperature, etc. are increased above normal operating values to obtain observable deterioration in a relatively short period of time.
Aerial Cable – A cable suspended in the air on poles or other overhead structure.
Alloy – A metal formed by combining two or more different metals to obtain desirable properties.
Alternating Current (AC) – Electric current that continually reverses its direction. It is expressed in cycles per second (hertz or Hz).
Ambient Temperature – The temperature of a medium surrounding an object.
American Wire Gauge (AWG) – A standard system for designating wire diameter. Primarily used in the United States.
Ampacity – The maximum current an insulated wire or cable can safely carry without exceeding either the insulation or jacket material limitations. (Same as Current Carrying Capacity.)
Ampere – The unit of current. One ampere is the current flowing through one ohm of resistance at one volt potential.
Analog – Representation of data by continuously variable quantities.
Annealed Wire – Wire, which after final drawdown, has been heated and slowly cooled to remove the effects of cold working.
ANSI – Abbreviation for American National Standards Institute.
Anti-Oxidant – A substance which prevents or slows down oxidation of material exposed to heat.
ASA – Abbreviation for American Standards Association. Former name of ANSI.
ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
ASME – Abbreviation for American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
ASTM – American Society for Testing and Materials.
Attenuation – Power loss in an electrical system. In cables, generally expressed in dB per unit length.
Audio Frequency – Those frequencies audible to the human ear, generally considered to be in the range of 32 to 16,000 hertz (Hz).
AWG – Abbreviation for American Wire Gauge.
AWM – Designation for Appliance Wiring Material.