flight path

American  

noun

1. the trajectory of a moving aircraft or spacecraft relative to a fixed reference.

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flight path British  

noun

1. the course through the air of an aircraft, rocket, or projectile Compare approach glide path

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Etymology

Origin of flight path

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

Planes continually rumble overhead in Walter Thompson-Hernández’s “If I Go Will They Miss Me,” shot on location at Nickerson Gardens in Watts under the flight path to LAX.

From Los Angeles Times

To say growing up under the LAX flight path is a complicated experience, there’s so much truth in that.

From Los Angeles Times

Along the shortest flight path between Moscow and Washington, D.C.—an arc known as the great-circle distance—Greenland sits midway.

From The Wall Street Journal

It also sits beneath the flight paths of potential intercontinental ballistic missiles fired from parts of Russia or China.

From The Wall Street Journal

An Indian rocket hit a snag during its launch Monday, forcing a deviation in flight path as it carried an Earth observation satellite and commercial payloads, the country's space agency said.

From Barron's