flight plan

noun

: a usually written statement (as by a pilot) of the details of an intended flight (as of an airplane or spacecraft) usually filed with an authority

Example Sentences

The pilot filed a flight plan before taking off.
Recent Examples on the Web The decal fowl is now on a new flight plan—out of a rather primitive past to a future where speed and efficiency are precisely matched in importance. Don Sherman, Car and Driver, 1 May 2023 But if not, Voyager 2 would take over the primary flight plan, and there would be no extended planetary tour. Corey S Powell, Discover Magazine, 24 Feb. 2016 The flight plan also included some photography, namely the crew was slated to photograph a solar eclipse from orbit. Amy Shira Teitel, Discover Magazine, 4 Aug. 2017 Kornblum had managed to keep his original flight plan with one leg remaining but was five hours behind schedule. Dallas News, 24 Jan. 2023 Flight tracking sites overnight displayed a flight plan filed with a commercial scheduler and the Federal Aviation Administration involving one of the Ultimate Jet charter planes used in the Martha Vineyard flights and resembled that flight. Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, 20 Sep. 2022 As expected, the helicopter flew out of its field of vision while completing a flight plan that took it 164 feet (50 meters) downrange of the landing spot. IEEE Spectrum, 30 Apr. 2021 Eight minutes after liftoff, the flight plan called for the the SLS second stage and the attached Orion capsule to separate from the core stage in an initial elliptical orbit tilted 34 degrees to the equator. William Harwood, CBS News, 16 Nov. 2022 In Belarus, two American balloonists, participating in the 1995 Gordon Bennett Balloon Race and flying according to a flight plan approved by Belarusian authorities, were shot down. Craig Hooper, Forbes, 5 Feb. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'flight plan.' 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

circa 1936, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of flight plan was circa 1936

Dictionary Entries Near flight plan

Cite this Entry

“Flight plan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flight%20plan. Accessed 31 May. 2023.

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