aeroplane

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Chiefly British Variant of airplane.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A plane placed in the air for aërostatical experiments.
2. n. A flying-machine invented by Victor Tatin and successfully tried at the French experiment-station of Chalais-Meudon in 1879. It consists of a cylindrical receiver for compressed air used to drive two air-propellers, two laterally extended wings, and a tail for steering. The velocity obtained was 8 meters per second.
3. n. A plane or curved (see aërocurve) surface, used to sustain a flying-machine or a gliding-machine in the air, or in aërodynamical experiments. As the machine moves through the air, the aëroplane (commonly a light framework covered with a fabric), set at a small angle above the horizontal, tends to support it by its lifting-power. Flying-machines in which aëroplanes are so used are also called ‘aëroplanes’ (see def. 2): those in which support in the air has been sought by the movement (‘flapping’) of such surfaces in imitation of the action of the wings of birds are called ‘ornithopters.’
4. n. A flying-machine driven by an engine and supported by the pressure of the air upon the under side of plane or curved surfaces known as ‘aëroplanes’ or ‘aërocurves.’ (See def. 1.) Various attempts to attain flight, in “heavier-than-air” machines, by means of the lifting-power of aëroplanes (surfaces) were made during the second half of the nineteenth century. Models of flying-machines of this type, more or less successful, were constructed by Stringfellow in 1847 and 1868 and by Moy in 1874 and Tatin in 1879. But the most important advances toward the solution of the problem were made in the aerodynamical investigations of S. P. Langley and Sir Hiram Maxim, and in the experiments of O. Lilienthal, O. Chanute, and others with gliding-machines. Langley perfected a model of an aëroplane (his “aërodrome”) propelled by a steam-engine (burning naphtha), which in November, 1896, flew about three quarters of a mile. Experiments with gliding-machines were begun by Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1900, and on December 17, 1903, an aëroplane constructed by them and propelled by a gasolene motor rose from the ground and made a flight of 260 meters in 59 seconds—the first instance of successful mechanical flight by man. From that time the development of the aeroplane by the Wrights and others (Voisin, Farman, Curtiss, Bleriot, Latham, etc.) has been rapid and extraordinary results have been attained. The machines in successful use are of two general types: ‘biplanes’ (Wright, Curtiss, Voisin, Farman, etc.) having two aëroplanes (surfaces) placed one above the other, and ‘monoplanes’ (Antoinette, Bleriot, etc.) having one aëroplane (surface) or two laterally disposed. On Dec. 31, 1908, Wilbur Wright made, in France, a flight of 2 hours and 20 minutes, a period surpassed on August 7, 1909, by Sommer (2 hrs. 27¼ min.) and on Aug. 27, 1909, at Rheims, by Farman (3 hrs. 4 min. 56⅖ sec.: 111.848 miles; his flight was continued (unofficially) for about seven miles more). On July 27, 1909, Orville Wright, at Fort Myer, made a cross-country flight of ten miles, with a passenger, at the rate of over 42 miles an hour. A record for speed was made by Curtiss, in a biplane, at Rheims on August 28, 1909, when he made 12.42 miles in 15 min. 50¾ sec. On July 25, 1909, Bleriot crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover in a monoplane, in about 40 minutes.

Wiktionary

1. n. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, UK A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Aëronautics) A light rigid plane used in aërial navigation to oppose sudden upward or downward movement in the air, as in gliding machines; specif., such a plane slightly inclined and driven forward as a lifting device in some flying machines. Also called airfoil.
2. n. hence, a heavier-than-air flying machine using such a device to provide lift. In a modern aeroplane, the airfoils are called the wings, and most of the lift is derived from these surfaces. In contrast to helicopters, the wings are fixed to the passenger compartment (airframe) and do not move relative to the frame; thus such a machine is called a fixed-wing aircraft. These machines are called monoplanes, biplanes, triplanes, or quadruplanes, according to the number of main supporting planes (wings) used in their construction. After 1940 few planes with more than one airfoil were constructed, and these are used by hobbyists or for special purposes. Being heavier than air they depend for their levitation on motion imparted by the thrust from either propellers driven by an engine, or, in a jet plane, by the reaction from a high-velocity stream of gases expelled rearward from a jet engine. They start from the ground by a run on small wheels or runners, and are guided by a steering apparatus consisting of horizontal and vertical movable planes, which usually form part of the wings or tail. There are many varieties of form and construction, which in some cases are known by the names of their inventors. In U.S., an aeroplane is usually called an airplane or plane.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an aircraft that has a fixed wing and is powered by propellers or jets