Editing Rotation (section)

== Flight dynamics ==
{{Main|Aircraft principal axes}}
[[File:Flight dynamics with text.png|right|thumb|The principal axes of rotation in space]]
In [[flight dynamics]], the principal rotations described with [[#Euler rotations|Euler angles above]] are known as [[Yaw, pitch, and roll|''pitch'', ''roll'' and ''yaw'']]. The term [[Rotation (aviation)|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 [[gimbal]]s, and [[joystick]]s, 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#Gimbal lock in applied mathematics|gimbal lock]] where the angles cannot be uniquely calculated for certain rotations.