Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

heavier-than-air en · ADJ

Meanings

  1. (comparative-only, of an aircraft) Weighing more than the volume of air which it displaces.
    • And folks laughed at Santos Dumont, at the Wrights, and at all the other fellows, who said they could take a heavier-than-air machine, and skim above the clouds like a bird. 1914, Victor Appleton, chapter 1, in Tom Swift And His Photo Telephone:
  2. (comparative-only) Of, pertaining to, or using an aircraft which weighs more than the volume of air it displaces.
    • Died. John Thomas Moore, 65, who, on a windy day in December 1903, lent a hand putting a flying machine on a runway, was the last surviving witness to the Wright brothers' historic first heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk. 1952 March 10, “Milestones”, in Time: