load factor

Noun

load factor (plural load factors)

1. The acceleration experienced by an aircraft along a given axis at a particular instant in time.
   • FDR data indicated that, about 0915:36, the airplane experienced a 0.04 G drop in longitudinal load factor, a 0.07 G shift to the left in lateral load factor, and about a 0.3 G drop in normal (vertical) load factor. The airplane performance study found that these excursions were consistent with a...2004 October 26, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.1 History of Flight”, in Aircraft Accident Report: In-Flight Separation of Vertical Stabilizer, American Airlines Flight 587, Airbus...
2. The percentage of a transportation system's maximum passenger capacity that is actually used.
3. The mean load over a given time period divided by the peak load occurring during the same time period, providing a measure of how efficiently an electric system's capacity is being used.
4. The proportion of the buckets in a hash table which contain entries.