Word.ws English Dictionary

deadstick landing

deadstick landing noun: a forced landing without propulsion of an aircraft that normally operates with propulsion.

Noun

deadstick landing (plural deadstick landings)

  1. (idiomatic) A forced landing without propulsion of an aircraft that normally operates with propulsion.

Forms of deadstick landing

pluraldeadstick landings

Origin of deadstick landing

This term does not come from a reference to an aircraft's stick (“control stick”); rather, the stick in this term is, originally, a wooden propeller that has lost its engine power (from circa World War I). The term was extended to any aircraft (even jets) by an obvious extension of the metaphor. This term also does not involve the same metaphor as stick the landing (which see for more), although in some light aircraft, in some conditions, a highly skilled pilot might potentially stick the landing even if it is a deadstick landing.

Questions about deadstick landing

What does deadstick landing mean?
Deadstick landing means a forced landing without propulsion of an aircraft that normally operates with propulsion.
What part of speech is deadstick landing?
Deadstick landing is a noun.
What is the plural of deadstick landing?
The plural of deadstick landing is deadstick landings.

Words near deadstick landing in the dictionary

  1. deadstart
  2. deadstarted
  3. deadstarting
  4. deadstarts
  5. deadstick
  6. deadstick landing
  7. deadstick landings
  8. deadsticked
  9. deadsticking
  10. deadsticks
  11. deadstock

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deadstick landing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-deadstick landing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “deadstick landing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deadstick_landing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.