instrument landing

noun

: a landing made with limited visibility by means of instruments and by ground radio direction

Examples of instrument landing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Flights could also be affected if maintenance technicians cannot repair crucial air traffic control equipment because that could lead controllers to impose restrictions on air traffic in areas where optimal equipment like radar or instrument landing systems are out of service. —Zach Wichter, USA TODAY, 14 Mar. 2025

Most commercial aircraft, for example, now use advanced positioning and navigation systems to support everything from heading and reference information to instrument landing systems. —Eric Updyke, Forbes, 8 Jan. 2025

And most instrument landing systems, which guide airplanes on their final approach to the runway, are more than 25 years old. —Sophie Hills, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 May 2024

Radar fire control, radar tracking, airfield lighting and instrument landing techniques were developed and refined at NAS Patuxent River. —Baltimore Sun, 12 May 2023

An instrument landing system helps airplanes fly safely when the pilot is unable to maintain visual contact with surrounding obstacles and the ground, mainly due to weather conditions or at nighttime. —Sheikh Saaliq, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Jan. 2023

Jagannath Niroula, a spokesperson for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, said Pokhara International Airport’s instrument landing system will not be working until Feb. 26 -- 56 days after the airport began operations on Jan. 1. —Sheikh Saaliq, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Jan. 2023

Researchers have also devised a low-cost hack that spoofs the instrument landing systems that planes rely on to safely land. —Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 19 Oct. 2022

Until 2015, Metro had been allowing two planes to land simultaneously in poor visibility, both using their runway's instrument landing systems. —Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press, 22 Dec. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1938, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for instrument landing

• misunderstanding
• banding
• branding
• handing
• sanding
• standing
• stranding
• commanding
• demanding
• disbanding
• expanding
• freestanding