Wet

adjectiveShop talkAviation

A wet thrust setting means the engine is using afterburners or fluid injection for extra power.

In military and high-performance aviation, operating wet means using afterburners, where raw fuel is dumped directly into the exhaust stream to massively increase thrust. In older jet and piston engines, it referred to injecting water or a water-methanol mixture into the compressor to cool the air and increase density for takeoff power.

Heard on the job

Tower, we're going wet for this takeoff due to the short runway and heavy load.