step climb (English, verb)
expansion: step climb (third-person singular simple present step climbs, present participle step climbing, simple past and past participle step climbed)
Senses:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To periodically climb to higher and higher altitudes during cruise flight, as the aircraft becomes lighter from fuel burnoff, to take advantage of the reduced drag at higher altitudes; like cruise-climbing, but with the aircraft climbing in discrete steps instead of continuously.
tags: intransitive
usually
raw_tags: of an aircraft
Forms:
form: step climbs
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: step climbing
tags: participle
present
form: step climbed
tags: participle
past
form: step climbed
tags: past
form: step-climb
tags: alternative