volplane

American  

[vol-pleyn] / ˈvɒlˌpleɪn /

verb (used without object)

volplaned, volplaning

1. to glide toward the earth in an airplane, with no motor power or with the power shut off.

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noun

1. a glide in an airplane.

Other Word Forms

• volplanist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of volplane

1905–10; < French vol plané glided flight, equivalent to vol flight (noun derivative of voler < Latin volāre to fly) + plané, past participle of planer to glide ( see plane ¹)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

volplane volplaned volplaning

Meanwhile Sir Alan Cobham had been forced by a faulty spark plug to volplane to earth near Nuneaton.

From Time Magazine Archive

To volplane from such a height and at such speed is almost the keenest test of courage that can be put upon a man who for the first time seeks to emulate the bird.

From Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound A Red Cross Worker's Ocean Perils by Emerson, Alice B.

How about the wings of the airplane standing the strain when Tom suddenly brought that volplane to a stop and tried to sail on an even keel again?

From Air Service Boys Over The Enemy's Lines The German Spy's Secret by Beach, Charles Amory

Without a moment's delay Barcroft switched off the ignition and commenced a volplane.

From Billy Barcroft, R.N.A.S. A story of the Great War by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)

Thus summoned to ride the whirlwind the Colonial Secretary executed a graceful volplane.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, February 23, 1916 by Seaman, Owen, Sir

The motor stopped, and they volplaned steeply; flattened, dipped a little, skimmed close to earth, touched, lifted again.

From The Thunder Bird by Bower, B. M.

There was a succession of thundering cheers as he shut off the motor, and volplaned to earth, but he paid little attention to them.

From Tom Swift and His Sky Racer, or, the Quickest Flight on Record by Appleton, Victor [pseud.]

So I cut off the ignition and volplaned.

From The Lone Wolf A Melodrama by Vance, Louis Joseph

He had crossed the landing field afoot and had just reached the belt of trees when the machine volplaned to the field behind him.

From The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border by Breckenridge, Gerald

From five thousand feet Johnny volplaned steeply to four thousand, and Schwab's sentences became disconnected phrases that ended mostly in exclamation points.

From The Thunder Bird by Bower, B. M.

We have the devotees of St. Vitus' dance called Jazz . . . volplaning down the descending scale.

From Time Magazine Archive

"If the motors go back on us we'll be in a bad fix; and volplaning to the ground isn't always as easy as it's pictured, especially when you've no choice of a landing."

From Air Service Boys over the Atlantic by Beach, Charles Amory

But, speaking of volplaning, I've had three lessons this week.

From The Hollow of Her Hand by McCutcheon, George Barr

Suddenly his engine stopped, as though with a sigh of regret that it could no longer serve him, and Tom knew that volplaning alone would save him now.

From Air Service Boys in the Big Battle Or, Silencing the Big Guns by Beach, Charles Amory

The maneuver was that of volplaning, and has been performed successfully by several aviators whose engines have suddenly ceased to work while in mid-air.

From The Girl Aviators' Sky Cruise by Burnham, Margaret