Monoplanes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of aircraft characterized by a single main wing structure, designed for various flying purposes and often used in aviation history
2. An airplane design featuring a single set of wings, which provides aerodynamic benefits and has been utilized in both military and civilian applications
3. An aircraft configuration that consists of one primary wing, emphasizing efficiency in flight and commonly found in early aviation models

Etymology: "Monoplanes" is the plural of "monoplane," so it names the class of aircraft that have a single set of wings. The aviation sense of "monoplane" was formed on the model of "biplane," the older term for aircraft with two wings stacked one above the other. Since "mono-" is the Greek-derived prefix meaning "one" or "single," and "plane" is the flat-winged aircraft surface, the term simply describes a plane with one wing layer, rather than a new or specialised invention. The word was built in parallel with a family of similar aviation terms, among them "triplane," "multiplane," and "aeroplane," and French used the same pattern to produce "monoplan." Because the coinage followed the existing "biplane" model, the word reads as a straightforward description of wing count, and its meaning has stayed fixed since the aircraft it names were first built.

Synonyms: single-wing aircraft