page_title: Rotation
section_title: Flight dynamics
hierarchical_section_title: Rotation / Flight dynamics
caption_attribution_description: Roll, yaw and pitch axis definition for an airplane. A version without the English texts is available at Image:Flight dynamics.png:
context_page_description: A rotation is a circular movement of an object around a center of rotation. A three-dimensional object can always be rotated about an infinite number of imaginary lines called rotation axes. If the axis passes through the body's center of mass, the body is said to rotate upon itself, or spin. A rotation around an external point, e.g. the planet Earth around the Sun, is called a revolution or orbital revolution, typically when it is produced by gravity. The axis is called a pole.
context_section_description: In flight dynamics, the principal rotations described with Euler angles above are known as pitch, roll and yaw. The term rotation is also used in aviation to refer to the upward pitch (nose moves up) of an aircraft, particularly when starting the climb after takeoff.
  Principal rotations have the advantage of modelling a number of physical systems such as gimbals, and joysticks, so are easily visualised, and are a very compact way of storing a rotation. But they are difficult to use in calculations as even simple operations like combining rotations are expensive to do, and suffer from a form of gimbal lock where the angles cannot be uniquely calculated for certain rotations.
caption: The principal axes of rotation in space
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