An aircraft designed to convert or switch between airplane and helicopter modes of operation using adjustable rotors or wings.
A blend of 'convertible' (changeable) and 'airplane,' first appearing in mid-20th century aviation terminology when engineers began experimenting with tilting-rotor and variable-wing aircraft designs.
The convertaplane represents one of aviation's enduring engineering dreams: the V-22 Osprey is a real convertaplane that can take off vertically like a helicopter but fly fast like a plane—though pilots will tell you combining both capabilities made something that does neither perfectly.
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