tail-heavy

[teyl-hev-ee]

adjective

1. noting or pertaining to a craft or vehicle that is too heavy in the rear, from overloading or poor design.

tail-heavy

adjective

1. (of an aircraft) having too much weight at the rear because of overloading or poor design

Word History and Origins

Origin of tail-heavy¹

First recorded in 1915–20; tail ¹ ( def. ) + heavy ( def. )

Example Sentences

“I guess it’s like an airplane: they’re the drag and we’re the thrust, together we make the thing fly. Too much of us and we’re nose-heavy, too much of them and we’re tail-heavy — it’s a matter of balance.”

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But the feel of the weighty jet was far removed from that of the SpaceShipTwo’s twitchy, tail-heavy glider.

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Shifting freight can make the plane either nose-heavy or tail-heavy, and the pilot has no way of knowing whether that has happened until after the plane is airborne, when it may be too late.

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The suddenly tail-heavy aircraft plummeted to the ground immediately after takeoff, skidding through a busy part of Miami and killing a man on the ground along with several crew members.

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Rolling backward, a tail-heavy plane is liable to tip on its rear end if the brakes are applied forcefully enough.

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