How to Use rotorcraft in a Sentence

rotorcraft

noun
  • The primary way to achieve lift with a rotorcraft in thin air is to spin the blades very fast.
    — Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, 15 May 2018
  • The 4-pound rotorcraft will be the first to explore the skies on another world.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 19 June 2020
  • But the rotorcraft won’t be deployed and flown until a suitable area on the surface is found.
    — Hailey Rose McLaughlin, Discover Magazine, 4 Sep. 2019
  • Fortunately for the rotorcraft, the plan worked, and the flight seems to have gone off without a hitch.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 7 July 2021
  • Not the least of these is that your average rotorcraft can't manage to lift a payload that weighs more than itself.
    — New Atlas, 26 Nov. 2025
  • Monday’s raid amounted to a month’s worth of rotorcraft destruction.
    — David Axe, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
  • For years now, aerospace firms have been engineering the kinds of drones and rotorcraft that could be adapted for the self-flying taxi role.
    — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 19 July 2018
  • The rotorcraft will then autonomously survey the sands of Shangri-La for a suitable area to touch down.
    — Jay Bennett, Smithsonian, 6 May 2012
  • The rover, rotorcraft, and rocket are standing tall on the launch pad, awaiting the signal to blast off for our planetary neighbor.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 29 July 2020
  • Future rotorcraft will use larger batteries to enable longer flights.
    — ArsTechnica, 8 May 2026
  • But those rotorcraft are unlikely to help aviation reach its net-zero goals, de Bellaigue says.
    — Jaclyn Trop, Robb Report, 6 Apr. 2023
  • The autonomous 4-pound rotorcraft is charged by solar panels and has just a month-long window to complete up to five test flights.
    — Julia Musto, Fox News, 1 Apr. 2021
  • The Helicopter Scout will be the first rotorcraft to fly on another planet.
    — Hailey Rose McLaughlin, Discover Magazine, 4 Sep. 2019
  • After landing, the rover will deposit its helicopter payload, then retreat to a safe distance while the rotorcraft take off.
    — Washington Post, BostonGlobe.com, 15 May 2018
  • The little rotorcraft that could is taking flight for the sixth time next week to explore a new destination on its aerial tour of Mars.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 21 May 2021
  • In what ways would a rotorcraft behave differently on Titan than on Earth?
    — IEEE Spectrum, 8 Jan. 2018
  • The project will serve mainly as a test of the technology needed to fly a rotorcraft above a world 140 million miles away.
    — Washington Post, BostonGlobe.com, 15 May 2018
  • The small rotorcraft already dangling above the Martian surface (see below).
    — Jamie Carter, Forbes, 5 Apr. 2021
  • Its modern sensors and weapons make it among the deadliest rotorcraft of the 21st century.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 8 June 2026
  • That one is in the concept stage, but a wilder one has been green-lighted to send a rotorcraft to explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
    — David Szondy, New Atlas, 14 Dec. 2024
  • The rotorcraft’s ultralight carbon fiber blades, for instance, have to spin incredibly fast to generate enough lift to get it off the ground.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 18 Apr. 2021
  • The rotorcraft is set to arrive at Saturn'’s moon Titan in 2034.
    — Devika Rao, theweek, 31 May 2024
  • Proving that this concept can work could lead to the development of rotorcraft that could act as scouts for both rovers and human missions to Mars in the future.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 20 Feb. 2021
  • Its purpose is to bridge the gap between rotorcraft like the V-22 Osprey and high-performance jets.
    — David Szondy march 09, New Atlas, 9 Mar. 2026
  • The helicopters were the cruisers’ main sub-hunters, but the vessels backed up their rotorcraft with torpedoes and anti-submarine mortars of their own.
    — David Axe, Forbes, 15 Oct. 2021
  • Dragonfly is a rotorcraft lander that will explore Saturn’s large moon Titan.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 24 Jan. 2020
  • This is important because most jets require a runway to operate, while rotorcraft have very limited flight performance.
    — David Szondy march 09, New Atlas, 9 Mar. 2026
  • Dragonfly Dragonfly will become the first rotorcraft sent to another moon.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 7 July 2026
  • If successful, Ingenuity will become the first ever rotorcraft to soar through the skies on another planet.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 18 Feb. 2021
  • Before Ingenuity can even try to fly in the Martian atmosphere, the 4-pound rotorcraft must first be deployed.
    — Julia Musto, Fox News, 24 Mar. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rotorcraft.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: