heavier-than-air
Americanadjective
adjective
-
having a density greater than that of air
-
of or relating to an aircraft that does not depend on buoyancy for support but gains lift from aerodynamic forces
Etymology
Origin of heavier-than-air
First recorded in 1900–05
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The extravaganza was mounted barely six years after the Wright brothers took off at Kitty Hawk, N.C. in the first heavier-than-air manned flight.
From Los Angeles Times
Safety concerns increased in 2020 after a pipeline in Mississippi ruptured in a landslide, releasing a heavier-than-air plume of carbon dioxide that displaced oxygen near the ground.
From Seattle Times
Two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, conducted four machine-powered, heavier-than-air flights under human control on a single day in December.
From Washington Post
The $2.1 billion rover will also come with the first helicopter, known as Ingenuity, that will let researchers understand the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet.
From Fox News
Like many scientifically minded people of that era, Christmas was infatuated with heavier-than-air flight.
From Washington Post
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
