instrument landing

noun

: a landing made with limited visibility by means of instruments and by ground radio direction

Examples of instrument landing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web And most instrument landing systems, which guide airplanes on their final approach to the runway, are more than 25 years old. Sophie Hills, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 May 2024 Radar fire control, radar tracking, airfield lighting and instrument landing techniques were developed and refined at NAS Patuxent River. Baltimore Sun, 12 May 2023 An instrument landing system helps airplanes fly safely when the pilot is unable to maintain visual contact with surrounding obstacles and the ground, mainly due to weather conditions or at nighttime. Sheikh Saaliq, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Jan. 2023 Jagannath Niroula, a spokesperson for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, said Pokhara International Airport’s instrument landing system will not be working until Feb. 26 -- 56 days after the airport began operations on Jan. 1. Sheikh Saaliq, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Jan. 2023 Researchers have also devised a low-cost hack that spoofs the instrument landing systems that planes rely on to safely land. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 19 Oct. 2022 Until 2015, Metro had been allowing two planes to land simultaneously in poor visibility, both using their runway's instrument landing systems. Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press, 22 Dec. 2020 Pilots landing at night must do instrument landings when a parallel runway is closed. Matthias Gafni, SFChronicle.com, 8 Aug. 2019 The flight crew failed to engage the plane’s instrument landing system, which would have provided a warning that they were not lined up with the correct runway. Matthias Gafni, SFChronicle.com, 8 Aug. 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'instrument landing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1938, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of instrument landing was in 1938

Dictionary Entries Near instrument landing

Cite this Entry

“Instrument landing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/instrument%20landing. Accessed 17 May. 2024.

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