heavier-than-air

American  

[hev-ee-er-thuhn-air] / ˈhɛv i ər ðənˈɛər /

adjective

1. (of an aircraft) weighing more than the air that it displaces, hence having to obtain lift by aerodynamic means.

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heavier-than-air British  

adjective

1. having a density greater than that of air

2. of or relating to an aircraft that does not depend on buoyancy for support but gains lift from aerodynamic forces

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Etymology

Origin of heavier-than-air

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

The aviation industry, quite literally, took off when the Wright brothers flew the world’s first heavier-than-air craft on a sustained, powered flight near Kitty Hawk, N.C.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026

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 • Oct. 29, 2024

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 • Feb. 25, 2023

On Dec. 17, 1903, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully tested a heavier-than-air “aeroplane” known as the Wright Flyer III, which propelled itself through the air with the help of a four-cylinder inline engine.

From Slate • Nov. 18, 2018

For years inventors studied ways of making a heavier-than-air machine sail through the sky like a bird.

From Boy Scouts in the Northwest Fighting Forest Fires by Ralphson, G. Harvey (George Harvey)