preflight

[pree-flahyt]

adjective

1. occurring or done before a flight.

   a preflight briefing of the plane's crew.

noun

1. a preflight briefing or a ground check, as of an airplane.

preflight

/ ˈpriːˈflaɪt /

adjective

1. of or relating to the period just prior to a plane taking off

Word History and Origins

Origin of preflight¹

First recorded in 1920–25; pre- + flight ¹

Example Sentences

What I did not know at that time was that as he ran through his preflight checklist two days before the scheduled launch date, he was evaluating the data that the IBM computer had generated.

Read more on Literature

Then on January 27, 1967, a space flight numbered AS-204, later known as Apollo 1, was moving through its preflight tests to send the first manned space flight to the moon.

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As she had done many times in the simulator, Alesna walked me through the preflight checklist.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

However, during the months after returning to Earth, the length of his telomeres were discovered to be critically shorter than his preflight levels.

Read more on Salon

Inspection of the hardware was required by the pilot during each preflight inspection and during the most recent 100-hour inspection in October 2022, according to the report.

Read more on Seattle Times