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  • ballistic parachute Emergency recovery parachute installed in (generally light) aircraft and capable of supporting both machine and occupants.
  • band See radar frequency.
  • bar Non-SI unit of pressure adopted by Jane's yearbook pending wider acceptance of Pa. 1 bar = 105 Pa. ISA pressure at S/L is 1013.2 mb or just over 1 bar. ICAO has standardised hectopascal for atmospheric pressure, in which ISA S/L pressure is 101.32 hPa.
  • basic operating weight MTOW minus payload (thus, including crew, fuel and oil, bar stocks, cutlery and so on).
  • bearingless rotor Rotor in which flapping, lead/lag and pitch change movements are provided by the flexibility of the structural material and not by bearings. No rotor is truly rigid.
  • BITE Built-in test equipment.
  • bladder tank Fuel (or other fluid) tank of flexible material.
  • BLC Boundary-layer control.
  • bleed air Hot high-pressure air extracted from gas turbine engine compressor or combustor and taken through valves and pipes to perform useful work such as pressurisation, driving machinery or anti-icing by heating surfaces.
  • blown flap Flap across which bleed air is discharged at high (often supersonic) speed to prevent flow breakaway.
  • BOW Basic operating weight (which see).
  • BPR Bypass ratio.
  • BTU Non-SI energy unit (British Thermal Unit) = 0.9478J.
  • bulk cargo All cargo not packed in containers or on pallets.
  • bus Busbar, main terminal in electronical system to which battery or generator power is supplied.
  • BV Besloten Vennootschap (Netherlands company constitution).
  • BVR Beyond visual range.
  • BWB Blended wing/body.
  • bypass ratio Air flow through fan duct (not passing through core) divided by airflow through core.
  • byte Group of bits of information forming unit in computer processing.