volplane
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English
Etymology
From French vol plané (“gliding flight”).
Pronunciation
Noun
volplane (plural volplanes)
- A steep, controlled dive, especially by an aircraft with the engine off.
Verb
volplane (third-person singular simple present volplanes, present participle volplaning, simple past and past participle volplaned)
- To perform a volplane.
- 1916, Wilfred Percy ("Billie") Nevill, letter, in 1991, Ruth Elwin Harris (editor), Billie: The Nevill Letters, 1914-1916, Julia Macrae, page 143,
- when well over the bosche lines & he volplaned home, just skimmed over our & the Bosche trenches, they all fired at him like sin, of course, and landed about 1000 yards back on a hill.
- 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:
- Curtains of vapor drift back to reveal the Americans, volplaning along well inside ten meters and only a little faster than the balloon.
- 1916, Wilfred Percy ("Billie") Nevill, letter, in 1991, Ruth Elwin Harris (editor), Billie: The Nevill Letters, 1914-1916, Julia Macrae, page 143,
- (of a bird or gliding animal) To glide.